Every time I think I've seen just about every kind of crazy custom controller known to gamerkind, someone outdoes themselves and comes up with something that is downright bizarre and/or genius.  Forget your Activators, your maracas, your bongos, and your whatever-the-hell-this-was, for the future of novelty controllers belongs to bras and underwear with controller technology built right in.

Intimate Game Controllers, by Jennifer Chowdhury and Mehmet Sinan Ascioglu, is a platform where game controllers are built into undergarments so that players must physically touch one another to play. The woman's controller is a bra with 6 sensors. The man's controller has 6 sensors as well but in a pair of shorts. Man stands being woman and each has access to others sensors.

Jenny started her research by crafting a Pong controller made from a bra. Touching the left breast made the pong paddle go left and the right breast made the paddle go right. "I then found out about a phenomenon called gamer widowhood where men essentially abandoned their wives to play video games night and day. I wanted to create a type of video game play that would center around a couple's intimacy and where two people would touch each other in order to play the game."

Anything that brings couples closer together is a truly wonderful thing, and these controller undergarments are... no, no, I'm sorry, I just can't get past the fact that these controllers could give rise (no pun intended) to a very... let's say "intriguing"... sequel to Wii Sports.  C'mon, you know you were thinking it.  And no playing alone with these things, lest you defeat the altruistic purpose behind them.  Admit it, you were thinking that, too (just from a different perspective, no doubt).

(via Game|Life)