Just about every console maker has revealed details of odd, inventive controllers that they worked on and abandoned, but rarely do we actually get to see what such novel control schemes look like in action. Though they're personal projects, Valve engineer Ben Krasnow has released videos showing off two devices he's made that allow video games to be controlled by the tongue and by how a player is sitting. Krasnow calls the latter device a "posture-based" controller, which allows users to move around a game world by sitting on it and shifting weight on their butt forward, backward, or side-to-side. It takes the shape of a large pad, and it also allows gamers to swivel left and right to look around.
"THIS WORKS BETTER FOR VIRTUAL REALITY."
Krasnow admits that it may not beat the precision of a mouse, but he says that it might be a better choice under certain circumstances. "This works better for virtual reality," Krasnow says. Current virtual reality setups frequently still involve the use of a controller, but with Krasnow's device, in-game movement could be controlled entirely by how a gamer shifts and turns their body. Though he doesn't go into detail, Krasnow also teases that the controller may relate to some of his work on virtual reality at Valve — something that Valve hasn't gone into detail about just yet. For now though, the controller is a hacked-together prototype, built out of a "cheap" bathroom scale, an Xbox 360 controller, and a mouse.