Control Games with Your Mind, Seriously!

For many gamers, the idea of being able to control video games without using a controller is something we can only dream about or watch in futuristic movies. Well strangely enough, it looks like the future is now...or at least sometime second quarter of next year.

Earlier this month, Emotiv (http://www.emotiv.com/) showcased its new brain-wave helmet which allows the wearer to do some simple tasks all by using the mind. After a short calibration test, the headpiece is able to translate certain facial changes, brain patterns, and thoughts into corresponding actions on a screen.

While currently the "games" that is used for include: a digital real-time representation of a person's face (when subject smiles, so does the digital image...all with no cameras), making 3D cubes disappear and reappear, and creating Stonehedge with big virtual blocks of stone.

Not that sexy...but still impressive considering it can be done with no physical movement. The idea is that once you calibrate the device, as long as you do the same action again, the headpiece will recognize it and complete the digital action.

Cool.

Does this mean that your PS3 controller should go in the trash right now?

Well no. This is not currently for sale, and the developers themselves say that this is not yet designed to remove the controller. In fact, the current digital lag time prevents this device from being an instant successor to recent popular gaming inventions, like the Wii controller and Guitar Hero™ guitar controllers. But yet the concept is quite intriguing.

Now some early bloggers are seeing this as an additional problem to the gaming world, adding even more lethargy to an already sedentary activity. If you can lift blocks without moving, it stands to reason that you could play any game simply by looking and thinking.

But the reality is, is that many people will have difficulty sitting still and thinking without physically also mimicking the movement. Imagine if you will that you are fighting a horde of orcs and your points (and possibly life) would rely on your reaction time to their ax strikes. Would you just sit and think, or would you mimic blocking the ax with your Level 3 Magic Shield? Well maybe I am getting a little to into this.

But what I imagine will happen is that it will create a much more interactive experience, much like the hopes of virtual reality ten years ago. If you can play a boxing game and actually throw your own punches and react instantly to block...or if you can actually control POV with the slight turning of the head? I think this will more that anything get people out of their seats. Fighting games in particular would seem to be a natural fit to this device.

But the possibilities extend much beyond this, I would think. Imagine if you could begin to use this device with a regular computer. Instead of using a mouse to paint in Photoshop, you can use the mind's eye to do it. That novel you have rattling around in your brain...maybe you can put it quicker to paper with a device like this.

At the least it presents some pretty neat ideas, though it is still several years from any kind of common usage. Please check out their site and some of the recent articles about it.