Grad student working on her master's thesis has specially designed a pair of controllers for couples.

　　Although they won't be likely to have quite the same wide-ranging family appeal as the Wii Remote, a new pair of game controllers offer a unique way for couples to enjoy video gaming.

　　"I found out about a phenomenon called 'gamer widowhood' where men essentially abandoned their wives to play video games night and day," said controller creator Jenny L. Chowdhury. "I wanted to create a type of video game play that would centre around a couple's intimacy and where two people would touch each other in order to play the game."

　　Chowdhury, who started the project as part of her Master's thesis at New York University, describes herself as "artist". She has previously worked on a number of other offbeat projects, including 'The Popularity Dialer'--a web interface which calls people's mobile phones with one half of a pre-recorded conversation so they can appear popular and important. She also designed robots which indulge in celebrity gossip and a cellphone version of the campus game Assassin, where people take photos on their mobiles of people to 'assassinate' them whilst avoiding being photographed themselves.

　　The controllers work as a pair, and are, as Chowdhury's Web site (WARNING: Semi-adult content) puts it, "built into undergarments." The woman's controller is a bra which features six sensors, and the male counterpart a pair of shorts which boasts another sextet of sensors. The man will then stand behind the woman in front of a screen where the game is displayed, and touch each other's sensors--each of which has a different function--to play the game.

　　Chowdhury says that she made the gaming undergarments from fSRs, atmel chips, Xbees, and clothing. However, the controllers currently only allow couples to play a flash game made by another NYU student.