OCZ Prepares Neural Impulse Actuator for Shipping

An anonymous reader writes "Technology review site Overclock3D has received word that OCZ Technology is putting their neural impulse actuator (NIA) into mass production for shipping next week. The device, aimed at gamers, works by reading biopotentials. 'These include activities of the brain, the autonomous nervous system and muscles — all of which are captured using embrace sensors located on the NIA's headband, amplified and sent to the PC via USB 2.0.' Users of the NIA will be able to control their in-game movements using only the power of mind. The device is priced at around $600USD"

Re:April Fools!?

[Corpuscavernosa]

Seriously. I just can't imagine that this could possibly work better than keyboard/mouse setup.

In Crysis, for example, there is so much input/output between switching weapons, suit settings, reload, not to metion run-of-the-mill aiming and movement. There's just no way without even a minor component like some sort of eye motion scan.

If it works well, I'll be the first to happily call myself an unbelieving douche and will post naked pictures of me playing games with it. Not that anyone wants to see that. I'm just saying.

Re:Uses for this technology

[QuantumG]

Hey, it's you who is failing the imagination test.

"Mobile computing" is currently about doing the stuff you do on a desktop computer while you are not sitting at a desk. This even includes "making calls", even if you more often than not use your land line instead of something like Skype when you are at your desk.

In the future (the magical super future) the computers that are sewn into your clothes will not be helping you check your email.. they are will be helping you do all those things that just don't make any sense if you're not on the move:

    * Helping you avoid traffic jams
    * Telling you when the next bus/train/rocket is leaving on your regular route so you know to walk faster
    * Posting your position to Facebook - or whatever takes its place
    * Keeping track of where your friends are - cause kids in the future will care more about being able to find their friends than who can see where they are.
    * Enabling you to search the local environment for businesses, single women, whatever.
    * Interacting with all the new network enabled devices that haven't been invented yet.. and don't be surprised if you can't even get a coke from a vending machine if you don't have sufficient network presence.

and so on and so on.

Re:I love gaming as much as anyone...

[Datamonstar]

The Evolution series of fighting game tournaments can't even touch the type of thing we see in Quake, and Halo tournaments, yet people practice indeed several days at a time most days of the year for these tournaments. I can't even imagine the sort of time a player like Justin Wong, RX, Sanford Kelly, and Demon Hyo has to put in in order to compete at the level they do so consistently. Personally, I'm a casual tournament player and I've spent hours at a time, sometimes the better portion of a day simply exploring one move. Often, I'm only concerned with a few animation frames of that move, or perhaps just one specific hit box. It's that intense, and if you're a professional you BETTER be training that often if your livelihood is going to depend on it. Another funny things is that as an contest winning saxophone soloist, I often practiced just simple long times for hours at a time, trying to reproduce the previous note perfectly. It doesn't matter what you're trying to be the best at. It takes practice.

If it has API - it will ROCK

[npetrov]

If it has API it will rock as a secondary input system to mouse. You will be able to scroll through text/code just by looking, switch windows, copy paste - it has an enormous potential. Again, if it can be trained to work with 99.9% precision like a mouse.

Awesome military applications?

[DraconPern]

Brain interfaced targetting support? better UVA flight manuvers? Attack helicopters needing only one person because the pilot can now control the gun with his mind? If the military thought using xbox 360 controls was innovative... wait until we present these things to the brass!

Linux drivers? Time to get started.

[alizard]

I hope to see people buying these and writing Linux hacks to get it working on Linux as soon as it goes on sale... maybe we can have a kernel driver by the 2.6.30 release?

I then hope to see people writing FOSS APIs that can be used in non-gaming applications (word processor, anyone? Lots of embedded possibilities... imagine using this as a UI for graphics applications... whether for paint or CAD/CAM apps)

Re:Uses for this technology

[The Master Control P]

If using the mouse hurts your wrist, get a trackman. They're awesome. Plus, you can turn down your pointer acceleration and still conserve a lot of space since you don't need to move anything but your thumb.

In any case, there's something even more important than having display glasses let you use your computer while mobile: This is a major step towards augmented reality [youtube.com]. We can do the visual overlay with some effort, and the audio overlay is as simple as a mic & headphones. But this is what will enable you to do something in virtual reality without appearing to be in a trance. Just fucking think about that for a second. Don't like your home decor? Think your way through the menus and *poof,* new decor is overlaid on your walls - no pesky laws of physics attached either. Instead of talking into a block, you talk to your friend's avatar right in front of you (which is copying your friend's facial expressions to boot). Teleconference? Telepresence. You'd never get lost again - stick a GPS card into your laptop and overlay a line leading you to your destination in your vision. Designing something? Have the design hover in front of you, see how it fits in.

I mean, augmented reality is pretty much the next best thing before the Singularity. Imagine living at the intersection of two realities, physical and cyber. An LCOS display in your glasses overlays the cyber world (however you wish to perceive it) onto a video feed captured by stereo cameras mounted on the rims. A next-generation cochlear implant overlays sounds from your computer - pings about new e-mails, new aim info, new searches, new news - straight into your mind. My book hovers in front of me and flips the page when my eyes reach the last line.

This is incomprehensibly awesome.

Re:April Fools!?

[poopdeville]

Of course its not useful yet. Most of what happens in fast paced games does not go through your conscious mind. Most fast past gaming skills are simple muscle memory and hand eye coordination. The best gamers are on top of their game as they relax and stop thinking about anything. The less you engage your mind the better you do.

Utter bullshit. Yes, hand-eye coordination is very important. But more so is tactical and strategic reasoning. Even in fast paced games. This process of situational analysis is certainly done automatically (you can't really help it -- engaging a game is almost by definition an exercise in situational awareness), and it may or may not be "voiced". But it is not unconscious. It is not mere muscle memory.

Funnily enough, if this technology develops to the point where it can translate a complex plan into the proper sequence of game moves, it will ultimately turn game playing into mathematics (as an activity as practiced by mathematicians). You wouldn't have to do anything but sit in front of a computer quietly, and concentrating on the problem at hand. A day where a complex plan can be translated directly will never come. But even this technology is capable of it if introduced to a child at an early enough age. The child would develop "control sequences" for computer actions we could probably never experience.