Link for this post: "Gamers may soon control action with thoughts" By Dean Takahashi in the Mercury News
In the previous post, I wrote about progress on a mental typewriter. Here is some news about mental joysticks that are being worked on by Silicon Valley Companies NeuroSky (which I posted about previously) and CyberLearning Technology. According to the Mercury:
San Jose's NeuroSky has been testing prototypes of its system that uses a sensor-laden headband to monitor brain waves, and then uses the signals to control the interaction in video games. They hope that such games are just the beginning of a mind-machine interface with many different applications.
“Research on brain waves is well known,'' said NeuroSky Chief Executive Stanley Yang. “But we have worked on a way for detecting them with a low-cost technology and then interpreting what they mean. We think this will have broad applications.''
Sensors in the head gear — whether headbands, headsets or helmets — measure electrical activity in the brain that scientists have studied for decades. Using NeuroSky's chip technology, the system can distinguish whether a person is calm, stressed, meditative or attentive and alert. Beyond games, the system might be useful for determining whether drivers are so drowsy that they need an alarm to awaken them.
The second company Cyberlearning Technology has a slightly different vision:
… CyberLearning Technology in San Marcos, has also created a gaming controller system with a helmet that monitors brain waves and can be used to direct a game. The company tapped technology developed by NASA scientists who wanted to train pilots how to focus on their cockpit equipment. It turned the research into Smart BrainGames systems.
CyberLearning also uses electrodes that attach to a player's scalp and monitor brain activity. In a fashion similar to NeuroSky, it monitors the relative stress or calmness in a person's neural patterns and links those signals to game controls. In a racing game, for instance, players can drive at faster speeds if they concentrate on being calm. If the players becomes too nervous, the game can send feedback such as vibrations to the game controller that make it harder to drive a car.
“It's fun because it adds a new element to game play,'' says Domenic Greco, chief executive of CyberLearning and a psychologist. “What you are thinking affects the game.''
Read the full story at the Mercury.
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