A 3-D Acceleration-Based Control Algorithm for Interactive Gaming Using a Head-Worn Wireless Device

In this paper we presented a threshold-based interactive algorithm using Body Sensor Networks (BSN) for real-time game controls. The system setup is consists of three modules: a wireless signal acquisition module which utilized a BSN node embedded with a 3-D accelerometer sensor to sense the head movements, a keyboard emulation module where our threshold-based control algorithm is utilized to emulate key press strategies, and a game application module in the computer terminal where we choose the open source racing game - "tux racer". Instead of controlling by the conventional human- computer methods (HCI) such as keyboards or mice, the game is now controlled by our 3-D accelerometer signal from our head movements. Keyboard emulation module was built up to connect the computer game and the 3-D accelerometer sensor. In the keyboard emulation module we employed the threshold-based algorithm, which has been tested over 1000 times. The result suggested that our system setup was fully functioning and the interactive algorithm is quit suitable for real-time gaming control in the context of our head-worn wireless device.