Simulating G-Forces

G-Forces have a large part to play when it comes to the experience of racing, when your car leans round a corner you can feel your body moving with it and its something we have to resist to keep a normal driving position. It can also make us feel near weightless when sent airborne and cause injury for example, whiplash from a sudden stop.

So if we wanted to play a game/simulator, how could these be recreated if we were stationary?

One example of simulated G-forces are rollercoaster simulator rides which use a pod on hydraulics that the users can enter. They watch a virtual simulation on a screen while slight g-forces are induced by shaking the pod with hydraulics.

Though this may be effective and emulate the realism of g-forces, this is not something the average consumer can afford; if they wanted to use this for racing they may as well buy a track car!

Generally G-Forces affect the human body by displacing blood; reduced blood flow and oxygen to the brain results in a loss of consciousness. However, the physically feeling of weightlessness and increased body weight from higher +G's is felt in the muscles through contractions. Blue Angels pilots aren't able to wear G-Force suits that prevent blood from pooling in the legs due to the cockpit layout so they train their bodies to expect certain G-Forces and contract the relevant muscles to prevent unwanted blood flow.

Electrical muscle stimulation  (EMS) can be used to induce pain through contracting muscles, it can be used on men to simulate labour pains a woman experiences during childbirth as seen in the image above.

We know that Blue Angels pilots have trained their bodies to fight g-forces by contracting certain muscles in their body; using EMS it might be possible to reverse this method and contract the muscles that would induce the feeling of higher g-forces on different parts of the body instead. This could be simulated in conjunction with a virtual game/simulator onto the user to immerse them into a racing environment through the feeling of physical g-forces while stationary.

In the same way a massage can relax muscles, EMS can use electrodes to emulate the same experience and increase blood flow to the areas of the human body being stimulated. We know that g-forces can make blood pool in areas of the body opposite the direction of travel.

As a result, you could relax areas of the body using EMS to increase blood flow and simulate the blood pooling from g-forces and contract muscles on areas of the body to prevent blood flow where g-forces would normally cause those areas to lose blood. I think a suit wired with electrodes that uses EMS could help simulate g-forces while stationary and have a self-tightening/loosening system on parts all over the suit to aid the induced contractions from EMS.