Research Project
TouchMate: Understanding the Design of Body Actuating Games using Physical Touch
A game where one player tries to guess which of two suspects secretly touched their leg under a table, with a twist: the act of touching completes an electrical circuit that involuntarily moves both players' hands at the same time. It explores how technology-mediated physical touch can create surprising and social gameplay.
Abstract
Body-actuating technologies such as Electrical Muscle Stimulation (EMS) can actuate multiple players simultaneously via physical touch. To investigate this opportunity, we designed a game called “Touchmate”. Here, one guesser and two suspects sit across with their legs hidden under a table. The guesser attaches a ground electrode from one EMS channel, and each suspect attaches one active electrode from the same channel on their forearms. When a suspect touches the guesser’s leg, their bodies complete the electrical circuit, actuating both their hands involuntarily via the EMS. The guesser’s goal is to determine who touched their leg. In this paper, we present the results from our initial study and articulate three player experience themes. Ultimately, we hope our work inspires game designers to create physical touch games using body-actuating technologies.
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