We’ve been enjoying rumble feedback through video game controllers for decades, and now it looks set to come to streaming content if one Netflix Studio Hack Day project makes it past the “cool idea” stage.
The hack days allow Netflix employees from different disciplines to come together, form into teams, and experiment with new ideas for the Netflix service. Usually, there’s at least one very good idea to come out of them, and this year that’s Project Rumble Pak, developed by Hans van de Bruggen and Ed Barker.
Rumble Pak is one of those “why didn’t anyone think of this before?” ideas because it’s so simple and obvious. We all carry around smartphones that are capable of vibrating, so why not enhance the Netflix content you are watching on your phone display by having it rumble at key moments? That’s what Project Rumble Pak does to great effect.
In order to get the rumbling effect to work, van de Bruggen and Barker used technology from Immersion Corporation, which specializes in haptic feedback, to synchronize Netflix content with the haptic effects available on smartphones. As the Hack Day post nicely summarizes, “You’re watching your favorite episode of Voltron when, after a suspenseful pause, there’s a huge explosion – and your phone starts to vibrate in your hands.”
Dear Netflix, please make Project Rumble Pak an optional feature for content viewed on smartphones. I think everyone will appreciate it.