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SensiKeys: improving movement with precision Raymund & Georg - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
SensiKeys: improving movement with precision Raymund & Georg - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
SensiKeys: improving movement with precision Raymund & Georg Zacharias Situation A PC-gamer uses keyboard and mouse to control the playable actors (characters or vehicles). Removing either hand from the keyboard or mouse is an issue. (no
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Problems
- actor (character or vehicle) movement is controlled by binary input
- leads to imprecision (setting forward direction by setting camera rotation
by mouse is only a partial solution and basically limited to characters)
- keyboard won’t provide nuanced (analog) input to the game
- mouse translation already controls the camera and mouse buttons are
mostly bound to actions
- both devices are in use and can’t be replaced or long-time ignored
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Solution 1 – acceleration lock
Idea:
- Use the mouse wheel (+ key) to adjust the maximal allowed acceleration.
Implications:
- difficult to implement as a generic control:
- no game code access, requires undocumented hooking into OS libraries to
emulate device)
- if not generic then game-dependent
- mouse wheel is limited to ticks:
- results in either loss of precision or slow adjustment time
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Solution 2 – pressure-sensitive keys
Idea: Provide analog input by
1)using pressure-sensitive keys by measuring a unit change
1)decrease of distance between key and board → capacity increase → voltage
decrease
2)measure voltage change
2)using microcontroller to
1)measure voltage change 2)display change via LEDs 3)identify as HID (Human Interface Device) - a well defined and implemented
standard for input devices
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Solution 2 – pressure-sensitive keys
Implications
- requires hardware design
- requires firmware programming
- capacity-based sensors pick up interferences easily and require isolation
- key travel distance and resistance should be fitting to provide the player
with meaningfully more precision than normal key usage
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Solution 2 – pressure-sensitive keys
Implementation:
- PIC32 microcontroller with USB
stack framework
- custom board
- 3D-printed case
- plastic keys
- foam material
- ...
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Solution 2 – pressure-sensitive keys
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Test – With Unreal Engine
- >= 5 participants
- total 8 minutes getting “expert” time for
- keyboard + mouse
- keyboard + mouse + acceleration lock
- Xbox One gamepad
- SensiKeys
- then 6 runs
- best 3 get evaluated
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