IGN has a very interesting article about a new device by a company named Emotiv that can interpret brain functions. Here are the 3 main aspect of the device, taken from the article.
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Emotive's technology is based upon a new manner of interpreting the electrical activity in the human brain via EEG that looks below the individually unique (and thus difficult to accurately analyze) outer cortex to deeper regions of the brain. Users wear an electrode studded headset that wirelessly interfaces with a receiver already no larger than a USB ram drive. In our closed door demo, Emotive displayed three aspects of how the technology will bring humans and technology much closer together.
The first aspect demonstrated was facial recognition. Without a camera of any sort, Emotiv's headset is able to detect a variety of facial expression. Smiles, frowns, open and closed mouth are detected in real time, as is the direction the wearer's eyes are looking. It even detects blinks and winks. Emotive representatives speculated upon a variety of uses for this aspect of the technology in entertainment, from instant messaging programs that allow users to see each other's expressions (no more fake lol's) to the ability of a game to know if a user is frustrated and angry or laughing and smiling.
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The second aspect we saw was the headset's ability to judge states of excitement or calm. Running graphs on short and long term scales traced the status of an engineer present for the demo. Immediately upon being introduced the slightly self conscious engineer's graphs jerked upwards, and the following laugh from the audience in attendance jerked them up more. He calmed down shortly afterwards, until an audience member slyly launched a foam stress ball at his head. The surprise sent the graphs rocketing skyward, where they remained for a time. Emotiv's reps suggested a variety of gameplay elements that could be based upon this recognition, from mood-adaptive soundtracks to unlocking berserker modes in first person shooters on the basis of the player getting amp'ed up on real adrenaline. Survival horror games could know exactly how scared a player is and judge when to trigger surprises to engage a bored player or key the arrival of a boss when a player is already terrified.
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The final aspect of the Emotive technology was even more impressive. By focusing upon physical movements, users are able to translate their thoughts into movement in a 3D virtual environment. Push, pull, slide, rotate, lift, drop, and six other motions can currently be detected by the Emotive tech. An engineer with some practice demonstrated the various motions by lifting stone columns from below the ground and manipulating them with pushes, rotations and lifts to build a Stonehenge replica. Visions of Yoda lifting Luke's X-Wing from the swamps of Dagobah filled our heads as the engineer focused his mind and raised an outstretched arm while moving the stones
Now I was a little unsure about where to put this extremely interesting and bursting with potential tidbit, but they are for right now focusing on using this device for gaming. They had a playable demo of a Harry Potter game where the device was used to cast spells.The author of the article called it a "telekenisis" spell, but we all know he was refering to Wingardium Leviosa, or Mobilicorpus if it was a person, there's another but I can't recall it right now. They also had a new game that used the headset to have two players face off against each other moving blocks around.
Honestly, this has the potential to have a far greater impact on the gaming industry than the Wii-mote did. However, they state in the article that they have no intentions of replacing a standard game pad. This seems like a shot at Nintendo IMO, and they take a much more blatant shot at Sony by saying that their device will cost "less than a PS3". I wonder if this device will be exclusive to one system, I believe the PC will probably make use it first, then since it is apparently easy enough to share between Vista and the X360, the console will get it depending on consumer response which will likely be high if this is constructed well. Of course I would hope that the Wii can make use of this in conjuction with the Wii-mote would be insane, however, since I plan on buying an X360 I'll be happy as long as one of the two systems get it.
I haven't even begun to think about the new ways in which this could be used, what do you guys think? Any ideas on how we're going to be playing video games in the future? The future is now btw, this is being released sometime next year, and you can bet it will be released along with a number of games.
Topic: Neural Interface Device (Mind Reading Headset) (Read 4005 times)
