Brain control headset for gamers (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Darren Waters
Technology editor, BBC News website, San Francisco

Gamers will soon be able to interact with the virtual world using their thoughts and emotions alone.

A neuro-headset which interprets the interaction of neurons in the brain will go on sale later this year.

"It picks up electrical activity from the brain and sends wireless signals to a computer," said Tan Le, president of US/Australian firm Emotiv.

"It allows the user to manipulate a game or virtual environment naturally and intuitively," she added.

The brain is made up of about 100 billion nerve cells, or neurons, which emit an electrical impulse when interacting. The headset implements a technology known as non-invasive electroencephalography (EEG) to read the neural activity.

Ms Le said: "Emotiv is a neuro-engineering company and we've created a brain computer interface that reads electrical impulses in the brain and translates them into commands that a video game can accept and control the game dynamically."
***
more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7254078.stm

I have to say I'm fairly skeptical ... it sounds like it is reading the impulses directed specifically to certain facial muscles, not "reading neural patterns" directly from the brain.

[Occulus]

1. I looked around, and it sounds more like the headset

performs a constant EEG that it uses to determine the output of the action; e.g., lifting a rock.

You couldn't play Unreal with this. A couple generations of headsets from now, and you might be able to play Black & White 2.

[RL3AO]

3. By then video games will be banned because they ruin the fragile minds of our children.

:sarcasm:

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

2. Subvocal microphones

would accomplish much the same with a many fewer sensors. The principle behind subvocal technology is that we all "say" what it is we're about to do, whether we are silent or not: our jaw muscles, in a response that dates back to our baby years, chew over the words we are thinking or saying. A subvocal microphone placed on or around the jaw/neck could pick up these tiny flexes and turn them into sound or computer input. Imagine a world where all the people yakking on cell phones all seem to just be walking along, grinding their teeth . . .