Battery-free Game Boy. Photo credits: Marcel Krijger, TU Delft
A portable video game console that allows for indeterminate gameplay could be a parent’s worst nightmare.
But this Game Boy is not just a toy. It’s a powerful proof-of-concept developed by researchers at Northwestern University and Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands, which pushes the boundaries of self-powered intermittent computing into fun and interaction. This is also another step towards sustainable technology.
“It’s the first battery-less interactive device that derives power from user actions,” said Josiah Hester of the Northwest, who co-directed the research. “When you press a button, the device converts that energy into something that powers your game.”
“Sustainable gaming is becoming a reality, and we have taken a big step in that direction – by completely removing the battery,” said Przemyslaw Pawelczak from TU Delft, who jointly led the research with Hester. “With our platform we would like to make a declaration that it is possible to create a sustainable game system that brings fun and joy to the user.”
The teams will present the research virtually on September 15, 2020 at UbiComp 2020, a large conference in the field of interactive systems.
Hester is Assistant Professor of Electrical, Computer and Computer Science at the McCormick School of Engineering in the Northwest. Pawelczak is assistant professor in the Embedded Software Lab at TU Delft. Her team consists of Jasper de Winkel and Vito Kortbeek, both Ph.D. Candidates at TU Delft.
Intermittent computing is about resilience. In the future, billions of low power Internet of Things devices may be able to dispose of their batteries in favor of energy recovery to ensure proper operation in conditions of up to a hundred power outages per second. Such intermittent operation poses many challenges – memory consistency and accurate timing, to name a few. And so far it has been successfully applied to tiny sensors for scientific purposes. But the fun doesn’t end there.
A solar powered and user powered Game Boy
As a first step towards researching consumer applications, the researchers created a battery-free, fail-safe clone of the 8-bit Nintendo Game Boy, one of the most popular portable game consoles of all time. Their Energy Conscious Gaming Platform (ENGAGE) is the size and form factor of the original Game Boy and comes with a set of solar panels attached to the front of the case. Pressing buttons by the user is a secondary source of energy. Most importantly, it impersonates a Game Boy processor. Although this solution requires a lot of computing power and thus energy, every popular retro game can be played directly from the original cassette.
“Sustainable gaming is becoming a reality, and we’ve taken a huge step in that direction – by completely removing the battery.”
– – Przemyslaw Pawelczak, TU Delft
No more traditional memory games
To ensure acceptable playtime between power outages, the researchers had to develop the system hardware and software from the ground up to be energy conscious and very energy efficient. They also developed a new technique for storing system state in non-volatile memory to minimize overhead and allow quick recovery when power is restored. You no longer have to save games like you do on traditional platforms, as the player can now resume the game from the exact point where the device completely loses performance – even if it’s in a platform game like Super Mario Land is a mid-jump.
Marcel Krijger with battery-free Game Boy. Photo credits: Marcel Krijger, TU Delft
Lights on, sound off
On a not too cloudy day and when playing games that require at least moderate clicking, game interruptions typically last less than a second every ten seconds. The researchers find that this is a playable scenario for some games – including chess, solitaire and Tetris – but certainly not for all (action) games yet. When the lighting conditions deteriorate, the user experience also deteriorates. User immersion is also compromised as the games have no sound.
Growing awareness
There is still a long way to go before the cutting-edge handheld game consoles of the 21st century become battery-free. The ENGAGE platform is just a first step in this direction. Aside from being a fun toy, it is mainly designed to raise awareness as there are many other open issues besides sound when intermittent computing is applied to the area of continuous user attention and interaction. The platform can also serve as a tool for studying the interactive behavior of people with intermittent systems. Above all, however, it was developed to further reduce our society’s dependence on batteries. Batteries are expensive, hazardous to the environment and may need to be replaced to prevent the entire device from ending up in the landfill. While gaming reduces people’s stress and boredom, intermittent computing helps reduce the environmental impact of gaming.
