[jr2]

...Actually, I want the Mk. 2 version when it comes out.

http://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2010-05/invention-awards-wearable-woofer-immerses-you-videogames

KOR-fx The Woofer works on your senses, pulling you deeper into the game. John B. Carnett

Check out today's featured Invention Award winner, the KOR-fx, a device that makes you feel physically immersed in a videogame.
Shahriar S. Afshar has spent the past five years perfecting a device that pumps sound vibrations directly to your ribcage, intensifying videogame and movie experiences. But when we meet near his office, the 38-year-old first spends an hour talking physics. “The Higgs boson, the so-called God particle?” he says excitedly. “It does not exist!”

Invention: KOR-fx
Inventor: Shahriar S. Afshar
Cost: $500,000
Time: 5 years
Is It Ready Yet? 1 2 3 4 5

Turns out he’s not just rambling. Many complicated diagrams later, he reveals that the KOR-fx (short for Kinetic Omnidirectional Resonance effect) is an indirect by-product of his years of work in physics. In 2005 he was living in campus housing at Rowan University, where he is a visiting professor, when he found himself unable to work because of the wall-shaking bass of the students’ videogames. An inventor since his childhood in Iran, he decided to design a solution that would provide gamers with all the vibrating bass they could handle, while not disturbing anyone who isn’t playing.

How KOR-fx Works: The device translates the audio signal from a game or movie into vibrations that the wearer can feel throughout his body.  Paul Wootton

Then he lets me try the KOR-fx. It’s about the size of a pair of headphones and sits over the shoulders like a backpack. Two transducers, which translate sound into vibrations, press gently into my chest and connect through a small box to any gaming console, PC or music player to extract the bass and other elements from the audio signal. The bass is in stereo, so you can feel the direction sounds are coming from.
We test out music, movies and games. As I listen to the sound through earphones, the T. rex’s footsteps in Jurassic Park reverberate in my chest; in the game Halo 3, I can feel that I’m taking sniper fire from my right side. Overall it’s like acclimating to the new cinematic 3-D: First it wows you, then it just works on your senses, pulling you deeper into the story.
Afshar says future versions of KOR-fx will create an even more immersive experience. The effect wasn’t ready for my test, but he says he can generate frequencies of vibration that act on the visceral nerve system, tricking the user’s brain into believing that his body is experiencing a range of phenomena. “We can induce the sensation of rain, wind, weight shift, even G-forces,” he says. His company, Immerz, is in talks with several studios to add these effects to films.
For now, though, the invention will be a gaming device. Afshar plans to sell it for $190 but expects that the price won’t matter once people see the results. “We have gamers who have been using it, and their kill ratios have been increasing dramatically,” he says. “They don’t die unnecessarily.”

[Thaeris]

Heh. Just read the physical article the other day. Those are pretty cool, but I don't have the funds for that sort of thing.

...And that chap has the unibrow from the beyond!

 

[headdie]

hmmmm, i need on of them

[BloodEagle]

It looks to me like it produces a large amount of pressure over your heart. 

[el_magnifico]

Gentlemen, if Mk. 2 is something actually possible, and not only bluff, this is a revolutionary idea. I can envision these things in cinemas, video games, and everywhere else. And they will eventually become cheaper with mass production.

It looks to me like it produces a large amount of pressure over your heart. 

Yes, I guess you should stay away if you've cardiac issues.
But woofers also put pressure on your heart, and the hearts of all your neighbours too.

[SpardaSon21]

So this thing is capable of causing injury to those with heart conditions?  Awesome.

[Klaustrophobia]

i really don't see how that would add anything of merit to gaming.  feeling a generic vibration every now and again isn't going to immerse me any more into a game.

[Qent]

Hopefully it's vibrating at the same frequency of the sound, not generic.

[Mongoose]

That looks almost exactly like the Aura Interactor, as featured here.  I wouldn't exactly get overly excited about it.

[Klaustrophobia]

Hopefully it's vibrating at the same frequency of the sound, not generic.

yeah, it is, but if i'm going to feel something, i want it to coincide with something my character should actually feel, not just sound in general. 

[jr2]

So if the 2nd-gen ones work as planned, you'll be thrilled. 

[Klaustrophobia]

"thrilled" might be getting a little carried away, but i'd see them as potentially worthwhile.  i doubt i'd get one though.

[Galemp]

[Rodo]

awesome! I wan't one of those..

[BloodEagle]

awesome! I wan't one of those..

Same here! Now, please excuse me while I go import some titles from Japan.... 

[Scourge of Ages]

Double image quote?

[esarai]

Interesting gadget, but my response is 'meh.'  I'd much rather grab a pair of jumping stilts so I can go run and jump around like a video game character.

[Black Wolf]

Interesting gadget, but my response is 'meh.'  I'd much rather grab a pair of jumping stilts so I can go run and jump around like a video game character.

After a curious Google...


Dude! Those are awesome Ordering some now

[Enigmatic Entity]

So-So - I would rather a real subwoofer, you can always put it up on your desk...

Since the link doesn't seem to work for people in Aus, I assume they are just some kind of "surface vibrators" that you can buy at shops that sell speaker stuff, except hidden inside a plastic package. I could probably make a torso-suit full of those things (like the $5 ones here) + a Tang Band sub (same place as link) for that amount excluding shipping...if my guess at what it is is correct. It it? 

[jr2]

So-So - I would rather a real subwoofer, you can always put it up on your desk...

Since the link doesn't seem to work for people in Aus, I assume they are just some kind of "surface vibrators" that you can buy at shops that sell speaker stuff, except hidden inside a plastic package. I could probably make a torso-suit full of those things (like the $5 ones here) + a Tang Band sub (same place as link) for that amount excluding shipping...if my guess at what it is is correct. It it? 

Sort of... but not really.  I copied the article to the first post, see there.