Method of Electrical Muscle Stimulation to Improve Hand-eye Coordination Training in Gaming

Hand-eye coordination refers to the harmonization between visual information and hand movements. In this coordination, the information perceived by the eyes is used to guide the movements of the hands. In many games, hand-eye coordination is important for the player's experience. However, when players are faced with an unfamiliar activity, it can be a challenge to develop hand-eye coordination in a short period. This study proposes a method for hand-eye coordination training in gaming using Electrical Muscle Stimulation (EMS). By employing EMS, it is possible to enhance attention distribution during bilateral hand movements and improve hand-eye coordination, potentially enabling individuals to train hand coordination skills in a shorter period. To test the feasibility and effectiveness of our method, we first tested participants for attentional switching while wearing the EMS device to ensure that it did not negatively affect participants. Sixteen participants were then trained in hand-eye coordination with and without EMS, and the effects of the training were tested in a customized game and a real music game. The results showed that participants trained with EMS showed more significant improvements in scores and accuracy than those without EMS in both the custom game and the real game. We also conducted a retained effect experiment, which confirmed that participants retained the training effect one week after training. Thus, our study shows the possibility of using EMS as a new medium for training hand-eye coordination in games.