Thinking is now doing with this week’s presentation of the first brain-driven game controller. The American-Australian company Emotiv Systems demonstrated the EPOC “neuroheadset” at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
Looking like the shell of a high-tech bicycle helmet, the device reads the user’s thoughts for such basic commands as “drop,” “push,” “pull” or “rotate” and wirelessly translates them into those actions on the screen.
Can Also Sense Emotions
The headset reads the mind’s signals from 16 sensor points and a gyroscope orients the device to match the user’s orientation.
Based on noninvasive electroencephalography (EEG), which reads neuron activity in the brain, the device can also sense expressions.
More than 30 expressions, such as laughing, smiling or winking, can reportedly be picked up from the electrical activity and transmitted. The company said the headset could allow a user to communicate expressions to avatars in an environment such as Second Life.
Emotiv President Tan Lee told reporters that the device “allows the user to manipulate a game or virtual environment naturally and intuitively.” The EPOC is expected to be available later this year for just under $300.
Emotiv is also reportedly working with IBM to apply this computer interface to other applications beyond making an avatar cry or a virtual machine gun fire. The headset will come bundled with a game designed specifically for it, and the company said it will also be available for game consoles.
The company has been working toward the EPOC since it was founded in 2003 by neuroscientist Professor Allan Snyder, chip designer Neil Weste, and technology entrepreneurs Tan Le and Nam Do. The vision was specifically “to introduce the immediacy of thought to the human-machine dialog.”
‘Coolest Thing’
Mike Goodman, an analyst with industry research firm Yankee Group, said he saw the device some months ago at a demonstration in his…