A new force feedback immersion suit is in the works and featured on Kickstarter. The ARAIG multi-sensory feedback suit was designed by gamers who were unimpressed by their rumbling joypad representing everything from the gentle closing of an elevator door to Armageddon.
ARAIG stands for “As Real As It Gets” and does indeed provide a wide range of impact points and sensory feedback methods. The system has three major components; the decoder, the exoskeleton and the sim skin. The decoder interprets game data and sends feedback levels and points to the suit. The suit holds the feedback units to your body so you can feel in-game events. The sim skin is basically a kind of suit decoration “to make you look like the game character” or at least customise the look of the suit. There are various Kickstarter pledge sim skin rewards. The suit will also be available in S-M-L-XL for males and females.
Feedback is provided by built-in surround sound, you can see the silver speaker disks around the exoskeleton neck and, in the current design, a subwoofer upon the user’s back. The dedicated vibration feedback is supplied by 16 impact points on the front of the suit supplemented by 8 at the sides and a further 16 points on your back. STIMS feedback appears to work like those TENS machines which contract muscles using electrical currents. The developers say the amount of vibration or power of the STIMS impulse can be varied.
The ARAIG developers talk a little about the system and how it works in current and future games; “ARAIG provides you with localized sound and haptic feedback on the torso and upper arms. ARAIG will work at a fundamental level for all games already outputting vibration feedback and sound from the game. By creating awareness through various forms of sensations we have created a base foundation for all game developers. Now any game developer can implement their own sensations to create a completely new experience for any game in any genre.” Of course the suit will work much impressively if a game is written with it in mind “As game developers start implementing ARAIG into their development process our global settings can be completely altered to become specific sensations that the developers want you to feel for their game to differentiate themselves from their competition.”
Currently ARAIG has achieved $65,000 of its $900,000 support target. To pledge support and get an ARAIG suit when/if it is produced requires a minimum $325 (not including shipping). This project has 25 more days to go.
