Valve experimenting with sweat detection and eye tracking for Left 4 Dead and Portal

At the NeuroGaming Conference and Expo last week, Valve’s experimental psychologist Mark Ambinder revealed some interesting things that Valve is working on.

Mark revealed that they have been using biometric data like eye movements in order to control the character in Portal. They are also playing with sweat detection to determine the calmness factor which will directly effect the time taken to complete a mission in Left 4 Dead.

“One thing we are very interested in is the notion of biofeedback and how it can be applied to game design,” Mark said.

“There is potential on both sides of the equation, both for using physiological signals to quantify an emotional state while people are playing the game.

“The more interesting side of the equation is what you can do when you incorporate physiological signals into the gameplay itself.”

The expo was attended by VentureBeat. You can check the video from the expo below:

Source: VentureBeat via Polygon.