A top view of the arena

But soon, you could be actually performing moves similar to the ones you want your onscreen alter-ego to perform thanks to the Fighting Arena developed by peripheral maker Thrustmaster.

Using four infrared beams fixed on two upright poles and a touch-sensitive mat, the Fighting Arena monitors how a player is moving and translates this into the game being played. The beams can be broken using arms or legs to mimic in-game moves.

Each one of the infrared beams represents one of the four buttons on a conventional Playstation joypad controller. Breaking a beam is the same as pressing a button.

On the touch sensitive mat are start and select buttons, as well as eight directional sensors that can be used to control the movement of an onscreen character.

The gadget is designed to aid players of fighting and boxing games who typically have to hit several buttons in sequence on a joypad to perform a combination or special move that could knock out or maim an onscreen opponent.

The Fighting Arena is due to be released in Europe in September and should cost about �70.