Kotaku
By Brian Crecente
Mind-control, it turns out, isn't as easy as it looks.
After spending half-an-hour watching an Emotive guy levitate rocks, pull down trees and make object vanish with little more than the power of his mind, it was my turn to check out Emotiv's Epoc neural detector.
The headpiece, its stiff fingers slipping through my hair to find my scalp as it was placed on my head, felt like something alien settling onto my skull to roost, perhaps before enjoying a light snack.
A nearby monitor showed the color-coded diagram of a brain, my brain. Each of the 14 or so fingers of the Epoc were indicated with dots that changed colors to show if they were detecting the movement of electricity from neuron to neuron inside my brain.
But one stubbornly refused to light up at all.
"Maybe my front lobes don't work," I suggested helpfully, as a tech jimmied the headpiece around on my head, pushing here and there, as he tried to get that last button to light up.
Finally that last button turned green and the Emotiv folks asked me what I'd like to do first.
"I think I'd like to levitate something," I said.
"Sure."
To start you need to quickly synch your brain, teaching the computer to recognize the thought you use to perform the specific action. In my case I imagined the box in the center of the monitor drifting away.
After doing this for a second or two, while the program "recorded" they asked me to give it a try.. and it worked. Imagining the box floating up off the top of the screen, I was surprised to see it waver and then slowly move upwards until it disappeared.
I laughed in surprise and the box immediately dropped back down again.
After a second, failed, attempt and another quick synching session, I was able to make the box float up and down by simply thinking about it.
The sensation was quite strange. You don't really feel anything, but you can sort of tell that a particular thought or visualization seems to have a direct effect on the game.
I found myself inadvertently tightening my stomach muscles, or raising an eyebrow when I tried to make the box float, or later disappear, by thinking about it.
The Emotiv guy used his hands to try and cue himself to think the same way every time, performing what suspiciously looked like something out of Star Wars to get things to float or vanish. But they said that wasn't really necessary. In fact, they are playing around with a game mode that would punish any physical movements you make while trying to perform the mental magic.
The team also showed me, but wouldn't let me play, the game that will ship with the Epoc when it goes on sale later this year.
In the game you play as a student of a form of mental martial-arts. You wander around a mountain learning how to use your mind to do things like push and pull objects with thought, scare away spirits with a grimace and turn items invisible.
The game also senses the players mood and changes the in-game environment around them to suit it. For instance, if you're bored or unhappy the game's sky turns a greenish tint and the music softens, but as you become excited the sky turns a nasty shade of red and the music grows louder.
The game was created by Demiure Studios and is meant to be a showcase piece for the hardware, something that proves that the $300 device it's not just a bit of cool gadgetry, but something that could have serious implications in the world of video games.
From what I saw it did look a little light on content, but the ability to control items with your mind in the game, will likely still make it a hit among certain set of gamers.
I was a little concerned with the underlying technology, though. From the demonstrations I saw and participated in, the device seemed mostly to detect whether you were or weren't doing one thing. In other words, it could tell when I was trying to float a rock or not trying. But it was hard to tell just how sophisticated that detection was. Could it, for instance, differentiate between my trying to levitate a rock and make one disappear? The Emotiv people said it absolutely could, but they didn't demonstrate that.
Also, it was hard to really tell just how sensitive it was. From what I saw, the thing either detected none of the proper thought, or 100 percent of it, it seemed like there was no middle ground, something that could create serious problems for developers wanting to use the device for more precise controls.
While I think the technology is fascinating, even stunning at times, it's hard to tell at this point whether it has real world practical video game applications. Of everything I saw the one thing that most interested me was the concept of wearing this device to track your emotions, relaying that to a game and then allowing the game to use it to tweak your experience.
Imagine, for instance, a Silent Hill that knows what scares you most and how scared you are at any particular moment in the game. The implications are frightening.
Comments
I'm so very keen for this technology. Awesome.
Brian Crecente HAS THE MINDPOWARZS!
Fake. ;)
Fuck man.
I'd be scared to have people in my head. This device is basically reading your thoughts. And that's what GAME DEVELOPERS have.
Imagine what more advanced versions that any sort of government funded organization would have.
Imagine also a device that records your brain action so that you can play it back later via the same device and relive it. Strange days these eh? ;-)
This is the closest thing we are going to get to real Jedi mind powers for a loooong time.
This + wii remote = STAR WARS GEEK HEAVEN!!!!
Wow! Now I can't wait to give orgasms to women in the new upcoming hentai games, with my mind!
w00t! I'd love a game that glows a shade of red to let the people around me know they should stop talking to me while I slay some goblins
Some interesting implications, my guess is its going to be a generation (console) before this stuff is even looked at though. Some of my profs use sophisticated versions of these and they say all they can do is a few actions with little to no fine control and that its gonna be a decade at least until they can get that.
It... works?!
Now I'm curious how it works with degrees of interaction. Can you push a box roughly or softly? Can you make it disappear quickly or slowly? Can you make it lift and disappear at the same time?
I wonder if you can write off a virtual telepathy device as a business expense...
This is an excellent idea. Plus it could have a wide range of practical and fun applications. I've always thought it would be cool to control thing with your mind with video games, but think if you could control vehicles, tanks, fighter planes. With enough training, and advances of the, this would greatly increase reaction time.
Must be hard to get used to...Where's Yoda when you need him?
Think happy thoughts. Crecente could kill you through the internets.
Paraphrasing Patric Stewart in Extras:
"And then Peach's clothes fall off. She shrieks and is trying to put them back on but I've seen everything"
Must.....control......CUBE!
Sounds interesting. They need to just get it out on the market so people can play with it. Then we might see some real impressive stuff happen. Think about this and wiimote working together...
Actually I think a Hulk game might work well with this :D
Oh.
Em.
Gee.
This is amazing.
If you imagine the price dropping, will it happen?
Now that's Brain Training.
@xAnarChisTx:
That's probably the most obvious application of this. The penis stimulator attachment that will "levitate" your cock is sure to follow.
OK, so in the near future, to get the full experience of a game, I'll have my web cam on, my surround sound turned up, my gaming vest that I can actually feel people shooting me, stabbing me, or better yet, tapping me on my shoulder, my second controller in my lap (a la Rez), and this thing on my head to sense my mood, or try some "0 or 1" mind control. Sounds like I'd be gearing up for another divorce....
Wow, that's really crazy! How exactly does it work?
If the player consistently thinks a game is garbage, can this go online and refund their money?
I guess this won't work while I have my tinfoil hat on. Bummer...
Incredible...
@xAnarChisTx: ... I would have never ever thought of that.
Proof that the goal of video games is to have as much fun as possible with as little effort as possible.
@Brian - your hair is glorious
Seriously though, they should integrate this into The Force Unleashed. The Silent Hill idea is good too.
"I am Locutus of Borg. Resistance is futile. Your life as it has been, is over. From this time forward, you will service us, You will be assimilated,"
Give it another two or three years, and this will be something so incredible.
@ME55ENGER: Don't forget. You'll have to be standing on a Wii Fit board and wearing a Power Glove and Johnny Lee's Head Tracking VR glasses whild surrounded by your 360 degree surround monitor.
This is beyond awesome, but the emotion thing is kinda creepy, but defitely worth trying.
Crecente looks like David Blaine in that particular sequence. lol
My guess, (based slightly on slight personal experience): The psychic helmet is not the sort of thing to be used for quick-reflex kind of games. Brain waves don't change that rapidly. But, as a suppliment to a normal controller, it could enable some very new and interesting kinds of games...
"While I think the technology is fascinating, even stunning at times, it's hard to tell at this point whether it has real world practical video game applications. Of everything I saw the one thing that most interested me was the concept of wearing this device to track your emotions, relaying that to a game and then allowing the game to use it to tweak your experience.
Imagine, for instance, a Silent Hill that knows what scares you most and how scared you are at any particular moment in the game. The implications are frightening. "
When I read this part, the only thing I could think of was the Fantasy Game from Ender's Game; the way it constantly adapted to Ender, and brought him face to face with his worst fears, both in an effort to find his limit but also to challenge that limit and push it further. Something like that would really scare me, I think; there's an innermost part of all of us that we'd rather not face and just keep suppressed >.>
In any case, the concept on the whole is fascinating, and it's neat to see how far science has taken us in as many years.
Nice idea. For some reason the first game idea that comes to mind is almost like reverse Breakout, with you levitating shields to ping back shots at your enemies. Very Discs of Tron.
I wonder how long it'll be before we can wire something into our nervous systems and control things using it. Training your reflexes would be a serious advantage for that.
Need preorder. STAT.
It's inevitable that someone abuses this thing to let you undress people with your mind. You know it.
Think of the possibilities, and im not talking just aoubt games...
Speaking as a guy that wished the VR craze of the 1990's never died, this looks awesome. I'm not sure I'd be able to spend $300 on something that's so far into its infancy, but a few years down the road when the tech is better and the price is lower... party on.
Maybe I should just reinstall Mechwarrior 2 and finally order myself a pair of I/O Glasses.
I wait patiently for my xKinesis game.
Now... TO add this to Force Unleashed
MU HA HA HA
lmfao when the music starts playing because Crecente does something awesome.
ive been waiting for rock band for ages in the uk, but you know what? fuck rock band, i want mind powers! thats simply awesome!
Sayid!
The force is strong with this one.
Shouldn't the title be "Hands-Off" when referring to mind control gaming devices?
that's neat. the future's so bright, we gotta wear shades.
Is that Sayid from Lost? ;)
The technology has interesting implications. In alien abductions many people testify that they were asked by their abductors to move and rotate cubes with their mind. For what purpose or future purpose I do not know. Looks like we can get a head start here on earth now.