Failing Fast PvP Turns to Electromyography to Detect In-Game "Panic Episodes"

YouTuber Failing Fast PvP has published the results of an experiment in measuring "panic episodes" during intensive gaming sessions, using pressure sensors and an electromyogram (EMG) sensor.

"I recently started a sort of research about panicking in PvP (Player Versus Player) gaming," Failing Fast PvP explains of the project. "The aim is not actually to reveal generalized and absolute truths about panic, but as a player I would like to zoom a bit over those situations in-game for which I'm panicking the most. I assume that the better understanding of when and why my panic overreactions are triggered in a sense will already help me in mitigating part of the problem."

There are a number of approaches you could take for measuring panic during gaming, including heart-rate monitors — but Failing Fast PvP opted for something different: Pressure sensors and an electromyogram setup.

"Whenever a fight occurs, especially when the fight takes me by surprise, I experience a kind of a 'shock' in which I literally lose the control over my hands," Failing Fast PvP explains. "And it is during those moments that I tend to hardly press my fingers on the keyboard, which eventually makes my left hand hurt.

"If the issue is an excessive amount of pressure of my fingers on the keyboard I thought I could have used something called a force sensitive resistor. I could place the sensor right under my keyboard to capture my fingers pressure force and print the value on a screen."

Measuring pressure on the mouse, however, would be more challenging - it moves around a lot, after all. The solution: An electromyogram (EMG) sensor. "It's basically a sensor used by doctors to test muscular status in their patients," Failing Fast PvP explains. "EMG tests the signals generated by particular nerve cells called 'mother neurons.'"

"These cells allow muscles to eventually contract. The measurement takes the transit of such a signal between two or more electrodes placed on the surface skin of the muscle. Of course, for my clicky-clicky test I don't need extremely complex patterns for my measurement in order to measure my panic reactions, which basically consist of over-pressing my mouse during a fight."

With the concept proven and a system in place to detect and alert to "panic conditions," Failing Fast PvP is now working on finding ways to mitigate the panic. "In the following videos," Failing Fast PvP explains, "I plan to test how simple remediations like better sleeping, a different mindset, or simply physical exercise can release my overall tension when I do play FPS games."

More details on the project are available on Failing Fast PvP's YouTube channel.