 
|
 |
 |
 |
| |
Thought Control
Headset Lets You Play Games with your Mind
“Mankind’s oldest fantasy,” says Tan Le, “is to move something with the power of thought.”
To that end, her company is among a handful building a headset that will allow you to control video games with your mind. If the technology works, it could make joysticks, nunchuks and other hand-held controllers seem primitive.
Tan is president and co-founder of Emotiv Systems Inc., a San Francisco startup with some 40 researchers – half of whom have doctorate degrees. Emotiv plans to sell its brain-wave reading neuroheadset for $299 later this year.
The Emotiv EPOC headset is arachnid-like, with 16 skull sensors designed to detect 30 different expressions, emotions and actions. It will debut with its own game. However, Tan said the device will be compatible with older games as well as a slew of new ones tailored for the headset.
The headset initially will work on computers and in online environments, with an eventual rollout for popular game consoles. She declined to disclose game-console vendors or titles of the new games.
Emotiv still has some kinks to work out, and it remains to be seen whether the neuroheadset will be able to work on a diverse population.
While Emotiv initially is targeting the $18 billion computer-game industry, Tan believes the neuroheadset could make inroads into market research, health care and security industries.
Tan talks about focus groups of children ages 10-12 who have been test driving the new device on a Harry Potter game.
“They say when they’re playing with the regular controller, they’re controlling Harry Potter,” Tan says. “But when they’re wearing the headset, they are actually Harry doing the magic.”
Other focus-group testers have shown a fascination with shooing away evil characters with their thoughts. Instead of pressing buttons on a controller to summon a wand or cast a spell, Emotiv users make scary faces.
“We’ve been surprised by how long people spend chasing spirits away, like running around chasing off pigeons,” Tan says.
The ability to enrich the gaming experience and transform thought into action, “captures the paradigm shift in the gaming experience,” she adds. “Emotiv is all about changing the way humans interact with computers.”
Visit http://emotiv.com |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
