LightPlay: Using an External Ambient Lighting Strip for Video Game Indicators

Visual indicators provide important in-game information, but displaying them on screen consumes space and increases clutter. In addition, the option to increase indicator brightness above levels possible in standard monitors can substantially improve accessibility. To address both aspects, we developed an ambient lighting system for video game indicators using an LED strip attached around the back border of a monitor. A controlled study compares the speed, error rate, and perceived workload of this approach with an on-screen baseline method. Results show that ambient lights can capture attention 17.5% faster compared to on-screen indicators, and ambient lights performed at least as well as on-screen across all other metrics. Our work provides empirical evidence that ambient lights can be an adequate replacement for on-screen methods when displaying indicators in games, allowing people to reclaim screen real estate and adjust brightness for accessibility, without sacrificing performance.