A new invention may have solved the age-old problem of encouraging students to wash their dirty socks more than once a term.

Kingston University student Lee Wei Chen’s amusement washing machine combines the much-loathed chore with a student passion - computer games.

The top half of the contraption resembles an arcade-style video console, but the bottom half is a washing machine.

The 27 year old, originally from Taiwan, linked the circuitry of the two machines, so the washing machine cycle becomes dependent on the gamer’s progress.

If players fail to progress beyond a certain level without losing their lives, the machine refuses to move to the next stage of its cycle unless they add more money.

Mr Chen said: “I realised that the skills I had developed in the virtual world were useless in the real world. I wanted to make them useful.”

Mr Chen hopes his new design will help him find a job as a designer or engineer in the UK.

Course leader Colin Holden said: “This is a big and original idea - examining the possibility of transporting the enjoyment and skills of electronic gaming into the more mundane world of practical electronic devices.

“He’s chosen two instantly recognisable objects - a washing machine and an arcade game - to illustrate this idea. Together the two objects produce a striking new electronic device.

“It’s an extremely well-executed design concept.”

However, Mr Chen admitted he is still not good at using normal washing machines, and does not even know how to choose the programme.