Friday, September 11, 2009

IT’S ALL IN THE MIND


I have definite reservations about the kind of simulated electronic telekinesis as described in this story contributed by MrMR. I’m highly distrustful of allowing any third party – human or machine – access to my synaptic activity. What I think hardly matters, however, since these toys will be on sale in time for Christmas, and, to be totally honest, I can’t wait to play with one.

“Brain-control interface technology is in the midst of a big coming-out party this year as it reaches the mass market for the first time in the form of a handful of games and toys.
The ability to trigger physical actions with your mind - can now be had for a couple hundred bucks. San Jose's NeuroSky is leading the charge with a half-dozen products, while rival Emotiv of San Francisco plans to start selling a mind-control headset in time for the holidays. The basic technology, which has been around for decades, involves reading a wide spectrum of brain waves and isolating patterns to understand moods and psychological states. From there, applications can be written to help understand the brain-wave profile and turn certain mental functions like heightened attention or meditation into catalysts for real-world actions. Brain-control interface has far-reaching applications beyond entertainment, potentially transforming the way we train our attention-deprived minds to how we communicate with machines and broadcast our feelings to other people.”
(Click here for the rest)

The secret word is Neuron

1 comment:

x_S said...

I have to give my honest opinion here... while the method might be incredibly novel & exhilarating at first, those games are likely going to suck & lose much of their appeal relatively quickly, like the Nintendo Wii & motion control. A lack of major / good second & third party developers will likely be the downfall of this medium's first generation.

Not that it isn't interesting stuff, but I just don't see success written on these endeavors. Granted, it is an up-start market so its not really going to be an adequate measure of the product's potential... but if these companies had partnered with Microsoft & Sony to bring these headsets out as external hardware for video game consoles, they'd probably do a hell of a lot better first generation.