Best in Category: Engaging
Best Concept
Interaction Awards 2024
Midas is an accessible gaming controller which can turn any object or surface touched into a control interface. Designed to improve the gaming experience for people living with Muscular Dystrophy (MD), Midas acknowledges the lack of inclusive gaming hardware for people living with musculoskeletal disabilities. It challenges the idea of a traditional controller by proposing a solution which caters to an individual’s experience of MD, unique even within a similar diagnosis.
Midas is an accessible gaming controller which can turn any object or surface touched into a control interface. Designed to improve the gaming experience for people living with Muscular Dystrophy (MD), Midas acknowledges the lack of inclusive gaming hardware for people living with musculoskeletal disabilities. It challenges the idea of a traditional controller by proposing a solution which caters to an individual’s experience of MD,unique even within a similar diagnosis.
Inspired by a codesign process with gamers living with MD and experimentation with e-textiles, it turns any object/surface into a controller by moving the buttons from a static object to the user’s fingertips. Doing so allows gamers to use everyday objects or even mould personalised shapes out of clay that are uniquely ergonomic for their hands, making for a physically comfortable, sustainable gaming session. It achieves this by incorporating fabric-based force sensors, which allow the user to calibrate the controller to their unique strength and build personalised control schemes to play games.
Beyond MD, Midas aims to augment computing for those living with numerous conditions that lead to muscle weakness and tremors and further the discourse around innovation at the intersection of recreation,accessibility, and interaction design.
