Valve has already revealed that they are actively experimenting with virtual reality hardware and with it VR controllers. Here are two designs proposed by Valve engineer Ben Krasnow, that allow you to take control using the tip of your tongue and through the way you’re sitting.
The “posture-based” controller is sat on by the player. Leaning in any direction will have the character in game take the respective direction. Can we compare it to the precision of a mouse? No. The idea though is still good enough for a start in relation to simple first-person character movements.
Virtual reality hardware available in the current market are set up around the use of a controller. Krasnow’s prototype however involves the user’s own movements to control the movements of the in-game character.
“This works better for virtual reality,” Krasnow said.
The second ‘tongue controller’ is relatively the same and offers an alternative to the mouse peripheral. Once again it’s not that accurate but holds good promise for disabled users.
“It would be basically pretty much impossible to play [a first-person shooter] this way,” Krasnow said. “The precision needed for aiming and shooting at targets in a game like this is just far more than you can really do.”
Krasnow teased that his work is somehow related to future Valve projects. Valve has yet to officially reveal their plans for virtual reality, an area which the company believes is the future of video games.
