Another game is the last thing we need to unwind, right? Wrong, says Media Lab. Colm Ward explains.

Relaxation is an elusive commodity these days. It seems all the technology that was created to make our lives easier has had precisely the opposite effect. Instead of doing our work for us, it has just created more work for us to do.

You might be forgiven for thinking, then, that more technology is the last thing we need to help us de-stress. But researchers in Dublin believe that computer games can teach us to relax and they have created a game that they claim does just that.

BrainChild is the product of research at Media Lab Europe into the interaction of technology, the human body and the mind.

Devised by a team that comprises engineers, a neurologist, a psychologist, a graphic artist and a composer, the game is controlled not by a joystick or a keyboard but by the player's body. This is done using "affective feedback", which essentially means tracking the body's responses and feeding that information back into the computer to control the action on the screen.

The game works by monitoring the player's reactions at two points in the body - the head and the fingers. Sensors attached to the head monitor the tiny electrical signals emitted by neurons firing in the brain - literally brainwaves. Simultaneously, the sensors at the fingers measure what is known as the "galvanic skin response", or electrical conductivity of the skin.

As a person becomes stressed, his or her skin becomes more moist and so it conducts electricity better. These measurements are used to determine the player's level of relaxation constantly. Only by relaxing can the player advance from level to level and ultimately succeed at the game.

The designers believe that this technology could be used to combat stress by teaching people and especially children to relax.

"We believed that we could leverage the fact that children enjoy playing computer games," says Dr Gary McDarby, principal investigator at Media Lab Europe.

"Our research on BrainChild has shown that gaming technology can be used to affect behaviour in a positive way, encouraging relaxation as opposed to creating adrenaline caused by many of the action games on the market."

The applications for this technology are numerous and several companies have already expressed interest in it, according to Mr Daragh McDonnell, research associate on the project.

He envisages it being incorporated into mobile phones in the future to help people snatch a few well-deserved moments of relaxation in the course of their busy days.

The fact that technology in its various forms is itself the cause of much of that stress in not lost on him.

"If you look at most technology, it is created for its own sake. We want to make technology, not just for its own sake but for its social benefit. We want to create technology that improves your life instead of just cluttering it up," he says.

Another project that uses technology similar to that used in BrainChild in a racing game format is currently undergoing clinical trials in the hope that it might be used to treat children with behavioural problems such as attention deficit disorder (ADD).

These projects are typical of the type of work being done at Media Lab Europe. The facility, which is based in an old Guinness storehouse in Dublin, was established in 1998 as a joint initiative between the Government and Media Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Its mission is to be a centre for research, particularly in digital technology.

Since then, it has produced several projects that, like BrainChild, combine the talents of researchers from a wide variety of backgrounds to explore new and unusual ways in which technology can be used.

It is the cross-disciplinary approach to research that leads to the development of such unusual work, Dr McDarby believes. "The real gems that come out of the lab are things that you would simply not have thought of," he says.

The bad news is that BrainChild will not be for sale in your local gaming store any time soon. There are no plans to develop it as a commercial product.

Because Media Lab Europe is a not-for-profit research institute, it relies on sponsorship to fund its operations. In return for their support, the corporate sponsors are given full access to the research findings which they can then use to develop their own products separately.

However, Dr McDarby is confident that some of the applications of the technology will eventually be available to an increasingly stressed public.

"Where overall work-related stress is estimated to affect more than 40 million employees across the EU, this type of computer game could also be put to good use in the workplace, enabling businesses to look after the mental health of their employees," he says.