If you’re a gamer, you know how easily even the most exciting, heart-pounding games can get boring after a while. A group of Stanford University engineers want to make sure you’re always getting the absolute maximum amount of excitement out of every game. Their modified Xbox controller will measure your physiological signals and determine when your game experience needs to be ramped up or backed off a little.

Special plates replace the backs of regular Xbox 360 controllers. These 3D printed back panels are loaded with sensors that measure the player’s heart rate, blood flow, respiration rate and how deeply the player is breathing. An accelerometer measures the amount of shaking that the player is doing to the controller, indicating how engaged he or she is in the game.

The smart controller is only one aspect of the Stanford controller, however. Software built into the game allows the game to change intensity and difficulty level based on the player’s engagement, frustration, or boredom. In addition to matching games to a player’s abilities and preferences, the software could be used to help tone down games for kids or even remind them that it’s time to take a break from the screen when they start to get too wrapped up in the game.

The post Xbox Controller Modifies Game Based on Ability + Boredom first appeared on Gajitz.

In its short life, the Kinect has enjoyed more hacks than just about any other video game accessory in history. But until now, none of them have made us pee our pants. That all changed when The Technology Studio teamed a Kinect up with a Puffersphere, a spherical projection display, to create this truly terrifying Eye of Sauron that follows you around the room.

The Technology Studio are the first to admit that the setup isn’t the most technologically advanced use of a Kinect, but you don’t need no stinkin’ technology when you have the actual eye of evil watching you every time you get up for a bathroom break. We’re envisioning one of these in every office from now on, helping bosses keep their huddled masses properly terrified and working hard.

The post Don’t Look Now: Terrifying Eye of Sauron is Watching You first appeared on Gajitz.

The lowly toaster is one of the appliances that we tend to neglect because, well, as delicious as toast is, making it isn’t exactly exciting. This inspired mod, however, turns the toaster into an unlikely gaming machine. A four-slice toaster is mashed up with an Xbox 360 and some awesome blue LEDs, resulting in the XToaster 360.

The guy behind the strange mod goes by the screen name ncaruso11. The XToaster 360 may be bigger than the non-modded 360 and it may not actually make toast, but it’s one of the most creative ways we’ve seen to smash together a kitchen appliance and a gaming console. Actually, it’s possibly the only kitchen appliance/console mod we’ve ever seen.

Unfortunately, the disc doesn’t pop out of the bread slot on the toaster – that would surely push this project over the edge and take it from cool to unbelievable. But it still manages to play discs just as well as any other XBox 360, and it’s an undoubtedly creative use of an otherwise-humble household appliance.

The post Brave Little XBox: Toaster Modded Into a Working XBox 360 first appeared on Gajitz.