Forget Kinect. Scientists have now found a way to literally make you the controller in video games. A study on human-computer interfaces at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Emerging Technology Conference this week included visual evidence of test subjects controlling games via electrodes attached to the surface of their brains -- completely redefining the term "head shot." The players, who (it's worth noting) were initially wired up for treatment of illnesses such as epilepsy, were given the chance to play the shooter classic Doom. The position of the targeting reticule was controlled with an external controller, but the command to fire came directly from a patient's thoughts. Astonishing stuff, but even more amazingly, the shots were accurate. "What I'm here to tell you is that this is not science fiction. This is an emerging reality," said Gerwin Schalk, a research scientist at the Wadsworth Center, a public health laboratory run by the New York state government. The science gets pretty complicated, but basically researchers are looking at the brain's alpha waves as a way to speed up people's interactions with computers. The goal, as you might guess, isn't to improve your Doom skills, but rather improve the way people interface with technology. Schalk also showed how a computer could tell the difference between someone thinking "Oooh" and "Ah" and a computer tracking the music you're listening to. Pinching his fingers together, Schalk said "we're about that close to being able to play back the music just by listening to the brain." The work shown at the conference was the most advanced look at mind-controlled gaming to date, but there are plenty of companies exploring the field these days. San Jose-based Neurosky is the, uh, brains behind Mattel's Mindflex children's game -- which lets kids raise and lower a small foam ball solely by focusing their concentration -- as well as the Star Wars Force Trainer, which basically does the same thing, except it sounds cooler. "I'd say it's coming in the next 10 years," says Tansy Brook of Neurosky. "Right now, the most logical fits for us are casual games and serious games, like helping with stress management. As far as the more hardcore gaming stuff, it's coming. We are working with a leading game console provider who's interested in integrating the technology." Source: http://games.yahoo.com/blogs/plugge...ht-controlled-gaming-180006137.html#more-9317
awesome. Lol think in the near future. Just put on a ear or head gadget and blam! control **** with our thoughts.
I'll take the red pill. The world is going to start getting really messed up by this stuff once it becomes affordable.
Because there is so much time between thinking "shoot" and pulling RT... I'm gonna stick with my controller when this comes out just like I did with Kinect. At least Kinect doesn't involve electrodes attached to your brain.
It's not just about shooting. If aiming and moving were controlled similarly there would be much more depth to the game. For people like me who have terrible coordination when it comes to using the controller something like this would be a huge improvement.
Years ago I seen a thing on tv where they already had a mind controller, They had a game already made albeit it was a basic test game, You moved your character around and moved blocks around on a open field. So it must be really hard to make an A grade mind controlled game.
It isn't responsive to command words, it's responsive to the reaction and pull command. Literally, the thought that goes through your head when you think "RT" is what the controller is looking for. Reaction time would be halved without having to use your fingers.
I never said anything about command words. By "thinking shoot", I meant the action your mind takes to make your finger pull RT. When you see a teammate, you "think" "don't shoot" but when you see an enemy, you "think" "shoot". I would like to see data supporting this "halved" statement, but half of a split-second is still a split-second. There are a lot more variables in gameplay that have a bigger effect on your ability to kill someone first than just getting the smallest upper-hand possible by using your mind to shoot instead of a controller.
I say 'halved' because your mind has to process basically half of the information than it needs to. When you see an enemy, you have to identify him as an enemy, think to shoot, then allow that to translate into a trigger pull. That last bit would be eliminated with this technology. Although, if aiming becomes something controlled by the mind, that would eliminate any sort of DMR skill and such. A FPS would need to adapt to make shooting more difficult.
Have you shot real guns before? Better yet have you tried paintballing? It's much more difficult than you think. [br][/br]Edited by merge: I actually have pretty good coordination outside of video games. It's probably because I spent so much more time outside as a child than playing video games.
Hmm, this is an interesting subject. The implications outside of videogames are there, but it looks like they're "field testing" it on games first, to see if they can get the technology down. The only draw-back is that you now have to have electrodes implanted in your brain to be a viable test subject, but I'm sure a new and improved "head-set" will be made once they decide to sell it to consumers. This sounds accurate to me. It wouldn't be much, but there would be less of a delay between the shot and the thought to shoot. The body is slower than the mind, and being able to operate at the speed of thought would give people a huge advantage in gaming and other applications. Once aiming and movement is perfected, we'll be one step closer to true virtual reality gaming. God damn I hope I'm alive to see that day.