Brain Control Headset for Gamers

gbjbaanb writes "Gamers will soon be able to interact with the virtual world using their thoughts and emotions alone. Headsets which read neural activity are not new, but Ms Le [president of US/Australian firm Emotiv] said the Epoc was the first consumer device that can be used for gaming. 'This is the first headset that doesn't require a large net of electrodes, or a technician to calibrate or operate it and does require gel on the scalp,' she said. 'It also doesn't cost tens of thousands of dollars.'" Wait until the government can get warrantless wiretaps on the logs of those things.

Still needs development

[firex726]

I remember seeing these demonstrated at my college a few months back. At the time we could use them to point, and type things; but they were very slow and somewhat inaccurate.

At the time they did not have a "Backspace" method, so when you typed "O" instead of "P" you would still have to use the keyboard to delete it.

Found a YouTube video of it, but I think this one from a different company.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhR076duc8M [youtube.com]

Bad summary.

[Dibblah]

Look closer at the text. It looks like the device reads *facial expressions* through pointed sensors touching the skin. Yay. That sounds comfortable.

Re:Future

[TheCycoONE]

A real picture can be found here: http://www.engadget.com/2007/03/02/project-epoc-thought-powered-controller-could-gaming-get-any-la/ [engadget.com]

Re:Warrantless wiretaps

[QuantumHack]

All this hand-wringing about "warrantless wiretaps" is wasted energy. Unless you are intentionally planning/doing stuff to harm people, you need not worry about this.

Having worked in intelligence, I can tell you: the government does not care what books you check out at the library, or what [legal] porn you download. They have enough trouble looking for whack jobs who are trying to bring down buildings and/or networks.

There have been so many foiled plots from these so-called warrantless wiretaps, plots that if carried would have killed thousands or brought Internet businesses to their knees, that if you knew the full truth, you'd be glad these wiretaps exist. As it is, the general public can't know everything, because it would compromise the very intelligence gathering that saves lives. So, therefore, we must put up with paranoid whining.

If you don't want your brain waves to be read by the government, then don't freaking connect your box to the Internet or the phone line. Go ahead. Be paranoid for nothing.

Good for the disabled but useless for the rest.

[__aailob1448]

The brain is designed to control the body. Our hands are the most useful part of it, with reason.

The next step will have to be some sort of glove ...we could call it a POWER GLOVE! Maybe nintendo can use it for the next console.

But seriously, it'll have to be that. The big problem is making sure it understands our intentions enough to be useful. Imagine a pianist that can airplay wearing a glove that understand which key he meant to hit (How? Good luck with that...). THAT is the next step and it's hard as hell.

Until then, all we can do is make more ergonomic pads, mice (wiimote is a 3D mouse, fun but doesn't provide more efficient control) and keyboards.