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气味是使游戏更具沉浸感和真实感的最后前沿

发布时间:2013-05-03 17:02:34 Tags:,,

作者:Dean Takahashi

电子游戏一直被当作视觉的盛宴,但这场盛宴却与嗅觉无关。在神经游戏大会和展览会上,有些空想家讨论了如何将气味融入游戏中,以增强游戏的沉浸感和真实感。他们试图开发一种数字设备,当玩家玩游戏时,该设备就会将气味嵌入游戏中。

神经游戏在游戏领域中还处于幼儿期。Neurotechnology Industry组织的创始人Zack Lynch,这周在YetiZen Game Innovation中心组织活动。他对神经游戏的定义是“将我们的所有神经系统,不只是脑部,与游戏相结合的技术”。它包括追踪技术如记录玩家心率、脑波数据、面部表情分析 、瞳孔放大、肢体动作和情绪和认知状态等,这些都是体现实际游戏体验的因素。

Neverwinter(from games)

Neverwinter(from games) 

嗅觉可能是最难加入到游戏中的神经官能。Richard Warp是Leapfrog公司的资深声音设计师及神经音乐创作者,他认为,随着技术的进步,将游戏变成一场色香味俱全的盛宴也许并非异想天开。

过去几十年,3D视觉技术有了飞跃性的进步,所有游戏玩家都会同意,音画相结合的游戏更加引人入胜。因此,头戴设备和扬声器才在游戏中得到普及。而嗅觉工具仍然罕见。

Sensory Acumen公司的CEO,Charlene Coleman表示,使人感知虚拟情境中的气味的技术可能作为创伤后压力心理障碍症的治疗方法。她认为,有些气味能减轻痛苦,使人放松,而有些气味则不能。比如,有些在战场上闻过肉体烧焦气味的士兵不能忍受培根的气味。

PerfectPlum公司的游戏感官设计师Heather Kelley提出,人对气味不能产生普遍的反应,不同人对相同的气味会产生不同的感觉和心情。

Scent Sciences公司的总裁兼CEO,Bill Wiles指出,气味的麻烦之一是,如果你在多风的环境下或在野外,它就会被驱散。

“与调色板不同,气味可没有调味板。它确实会影响你的想法。在一种文明中遭排斥的气味可能受到另一种文明的欢迎。假设,在宾馆里有一种用于唤醒的气味,那会是什么呢?我认为可能是咖啡,但其他人可能说是培根。这跟人有关。”

帮助气味传播的工具可能是必要的。Kelley指出,在太空中,宇航员经常会丧失嗅觉,因为他们远离了能将气味送进鼻腔的气流。在这种情况下,上述小工具就有帮助了。她还说,走到雕塑前,用手拍它,闻到它散发出来的香味,这是一件很酷的事,可能改变你对艺术作品的欣赏体验。

Wiles还提出,你还可能将香味植入汽车中,以缓解交通暴躁者的症状。

The Code International的创作者兼总裁,Steve Horowitz认为,声音在游戏中表现尚未达到完美,但它面临的阻碍不如气味的来得大。自适应声音的努力方向是使根据游戏中的戏剧性紧张感产生相应的声音。

Horowitz指出:“你可以设计5.1扬声器,但大多数消费者还没升级他们的系统,所以他们不会听到你所设计的声音。”

也许在某天,气味专家们将不得不创造新气味。谁知道呢。例如,僵尸的气味应该是怎么样的?应该不太好闻,但如果做成烧焦培根的气味,有可能让某些玩家感到不适。

Coleman概括道,“我们所做的一切,都是为了沉浸感。”Coleman表示,气味绝对会成为《星际迷航》体验的一部分,或任何完全模拟现实体验的科幻小说的一部分。

(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,拒绝任何不保留版权的转载,如需转载请联系:游戏邦)

Smell could be the last frontier in making games more immersive and realistic

by Dean Takahashi

Video games have often been a feast for the visual senses, but smell has been left out. At the NeuroGaming Conference and Expo, some visionaries are talking about how to incorporate the sense of smell into games so that entertainment can become even more engaging, immersive, and realistic in the future. They’re trying to create digital devices that can insert smell into games as we play them.

NeuroGaming is a nascent category of the game business, as defined by conference head Zack Lynch, who organized the event at the YetiZen Game Innovation Center this week. Lynch, the founder of the Neurotechnology Industry Organization, explains Neurogaming as the “technologies that integrate all of our nervous system, not just our brains, into gaming.” It includes technologies that track things like player heart rate, brain wave data, facial analysis, pupil dilation, hand and body gestures, and changing emotional and cognitive state — all toward driving actual gameplay.

Smell is probably going to be the most difficult sense to include in a game in the future. But given the progress of technology, it really isn’t a crazy idea, said moderator Richard Warp [pictured with microphone], the senior audio lead and NeuroMusic composer at Leapfrog Enterprises.

While 3D visuals have advanced over the past couple of decades, every gamer will acknowledge that adding sound to those visuals makes games much more enthralling. This has made headsets and speakers common. Smell gadgets are not common.

Charlene Coleman, the CEO of Sensory Acumen, said her technology is being considered for treatment of soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. She said that some smells are soothing and relaxing, while others are not. Some soldiers, she said, can’t stand the smell of bacon if they have smelled burning bodies on a battlefield.

Heather Kelley, a game sense designer at PerfectPlum, said that there is no universal reaction to smells. Some smells trigger very different sensations or emotions in different people.

One problem with smell is that it can dissipate if you’re in a windy environment or outdoors in a city, said Bill Wiles, the president and chief executive at Scent Sciences.

“There isn’t really a scent palette like a color palette,” Wiles said. “It really goes into what effect that you want. Some smells are repulsive to one culture and attractive to others. If you had a wake-up smell in a hotel, what would it be? I thought it would be coffee, but other people said bacon. Certain smells people relate to.”

Some gadget that helps deliver a sense of smell might be necessary. Kelley said that is what helps astronauts, who often lose their sense of smell in space because they miss the air currents that deliver the smells to their noses. She said it would be cool to go up to a sculpture, pass your hand over it, and smell the aromas emanating from the sculpture. That would change your experience of the work of art.

You could also insert a fragrance in a car, soothing someone who is about go crazy with road rage, Wiles said.

Sound also isn’t perfected yet in games, but its hurdles aren’t as giant as those facing smell, said Steve Horowitz, composer and president of The Code International. Adaptive sound efforts are aimed at creating sounds that match the dramatic tension in a game.

“You can design for 5.1 speakers, but most consumers haven’t set up their systems right so they won’t hear what you’ve designed,” Horowitz.

At some point, smell experts will have to create their own new smells. Who knows, for instance, what a zombie smells like? It’s probably not good, but burnt bacon probably would freak some gamers out.

At some point, “What you are all leading up to what we all want, which is total immersion,” said Wiles. And Coleman said that smell would definitely be part of any Star Trek Holodeck or complete simulated reality experience from science fiction.(source:venturebeat)

 


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