So does it work? From what we can tell, you need to prod a real mouse in the right direction, and then your mind sort of takes care of the rest. So in one word—no.

OCZ to launch 'brain mouse': Neural Impulse Actuator for multi-core PCs [QJ Net]

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.

Mind-controlled video games comes to the masses this Christmas for $300 a pop. Emotiv's Epoc "high-fidelity nero system" will begin shipping later this year with a Bluetooth dongle for synching with a computer and come packed with a PC game that will allow gamers to levitate virtual rocks, pull digital trees and scare of in-game spirits, all with their minds.

"At Emotiv our vision for the future is that controls won't be limited to conscious controls," said Tan Le, co-founder of the company behind the mind-reading device. "This will allow machines to understand your emotions and expressions."

The wireless device slips onto a gamers head, its 14 or so slender metal branches sliding through hair to rest against the scalp. The metal arms, which are coated with a proprietary material, detect the electrical current conducted by the brain and transmits the data to an in-board chip that deciphers the information and translates it into data that can be used by the program to control games.

The device, which will come in black or white, will sell for $300 through Emotiv retailers and "select" retailers. Up to four devices can be synced on a single computer, Le said.

The device, which was first shown last year at GDC, has evolved to be able to detect a range of brain activity, Le said, using the data to detect facial expression, mood and, to some degree, simple thought.

"That's really mankind's longest living fantasy," she said. "To be able to effect our world with just the power of our thoughts. This is the realm of science fiction."

Le said the technology was still in alpha last year, but has since progressed significantly.

"We've improved all of the detections to make it far better, far more responsive," she said.

Now to play the game, which comes packed with the device, players simply have to slip on the headset and synch their brain with the device, a process which can take as little as six seconds.

The device will also include a web portal which will allow users to browse the internet using the power of their minds, she said. There will also be a piece of keyboard mapping software that will allow owners to map thoughts to different keystrokes, potentially making it possible to play current games with your mind.

Emotiv also plans to release an software development kit to the game development community.

Make sure to check back in the morning for my preview of the game, heads-on impressions of the device and how it felt for me to make stuff float... and stuff.