Bringing Neurofeedback Gaming To the Masses

New submitter captioning writes "The Los Angeles Times reports on Throw Trucks With Your Mind, a multiplayer first-person 'gunless shooter' that uses an inexpensive, wireless EEG (electroencephalograph) headset to measure players' brainwaves and move virtual objects on screen. Depending on the strength of players' beta waves (emitted while concentrating), players toss small items like crates or catapult objects like trucks. Players can also draw things toward them by relaxing (and emitting alpha waves). Greater relaxation results in more power as well, so players learn quickly to be careful when attracting trucks. The success of Throw Trucks could lead to stronger demand for neural feedback games worldwide."

Neurosky headset

[wimpy]

I have such a Neurosky headset but find it of no use - the output seems to be just random. Whether meditating, concentrating very hard or playing a game, it is always fluctuating in a similar pattern. What does work is eye blinking, but that is just picking up the muscle contraction and not the brainwaves.

Re:Neurosky headset

[EdZ]

The Neroskys, as EEG headsets, are crap. You'd be lucky to pick up anything other than forehead muscle contractions. The Emotive EPOC isn't half bad, and is probably the cheapest way to get an actually functional EEG headset that you don't have to build yourself. If you want to do any actual controlling of things with conscious intent, it's the bare minimum, but you'd be better off with a full electrode mesh and some proper instrumentation amplifiers, but that's not going to be anywhere close to cheap or easy to work with without a good amount of prior knowledge.

This "Throw Trucks With Your Mind" thing is a waste of money, unless you really want to play "Sometimes Throw Trucks With Your Forehead".

Re:Neurosky headset

[drkim]

I've got the OCZ Neural Impulse Actuator Review (NIA) and it works fairly well for gaming.
As far as I can tell, it does pick up muscle contractions (eyebrow raising) better than brain activity. Takes a lot of training, too.

I had a lot of intermittent reading trouble with it, until I started smearing the sensors with electrode paste, then I got more consistent results.

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/649 [hardwaresecrets.com]