Mind Reading Gaming Headset

Mind Reading > mind controlling > murder

We’ve been hearing rumblings about mind control interface systems for a while now, but we didn’t quite expect one to be hitting the market before Christmas.

Ok, so it’ll only be available in the States, but if Emotiv’s Epoc device works well enough to sell a decent quantity of units to American gamers, it surely can’t be long before a worldwide rollout.

The Epoc works by reading the brain’s electrical signals, which are then translated into a multi-dimensional image. The images are then classified, according to the individual user, by software called EmoKey. In other words, each action you can perform has a unique mental fingerprint. By detecting this fingerprint, Emotiv’s product can send control signals to a computer simply as a result of the wearer thinking them.

At present, Emotiv admits that its technology is still in its infancy. The headset is launching with games designed to take full advantage of the Epoc, but according to Emotiv CEO Nan Do “You’re basically looking at a computer in the ‘70s. Everybody knows this is going to be awesome in the future and do a lot of things, but it’s not there yet, just as you couldn’t expect photo realistic graphics on the computer in the ‘70′s.”

Do postulates that improvements to the technology will allow games to react players’ emotions, while reduced latency will make Epoc hugely exciting for FPS players. He also believes that mind control devices represent a huge leap forward for physically disabled gamers and will eventually have applications outside of gaming. “Even though gaming has a lot of following, you don’t realise that when you’re talking about the community at large – a lot of the applications are non-gaming.  Like medical or healthcare applications.

“For example, university researchers and doctors are currently working on applications to treat depression and addiction – without drugs. It’s a state of brain. You fall into it and stay in it. So now if you could predict that, you could have different brain exercises to keep you out of that mindset.”

The Epoc website is certainly ramping up the hype, promising that the headset will deliver “the fantasy of controlling the universe using only the power of your mind”. Other claims seem a bit spurious, though: statements such as “creatures in the game react to your facial expressions” and “environments change according to your emotional state” surely promise a level of interaction that not many games can yet deliver. In other words, don’t expect your Warcraft campaign to bust out the fluffy bunnies just because you’ve got a smile on your face.