Game Runner

The Game Runner was created to add an extra dimension to the computer gaming experience. It started out as an idea to add more fun to games and we have come up with a working product that enhances your gameplay and adds a bit of realism. The Game Runner consists mainly of a controller and a treadmill platform. The controller uses a USB command structure to communicate with Windows API. To get it to function properly, we had to modify the HID class specific descriptor to resemble a controller and redesign the packet structure to use that new descriptor. All of this is done so that when you plug it in to your computer, Windows automatically recognizes it as a controller. The buttons and direction pad on the controller are standard digital input/output.

The tricky part of this project was reading the treadmill run cycles. We ended up attaching a magnet to the belt, and using a sensor that detects change in magnetic field to allow running on the treadmill to be read as running in the game. The treadmill controls the magnitude while the D-pad controls the direction. We have successfully tested this on a few popular games such as Portal and Team Fortress 2. We are currently working on making the gamerunner compatible with consoles such as the xbox 360.