[Offtopic] mind control of video games

[Alan Oh]

wow... 


Regards
Alan Oh
 
Waverley Christian College
Tel: (613) 9871-8600 ext 605
www: www.wcc.vic.edu.au
email: oh.a at wcc.vic.edu.au

-----Original Message-----
From: offtopic-bounces at edulists.com.au
[mailto:offtopic-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of
stephen at melbpc.org.au
Sent: Thursday, 8 May 2008 12:11 AM
To: link at anu.edu.au
Cc: offtopic at edulists.com.au; oz-teachers at rite.ed.qut.edu.au
Subject: [Offtopic] mind control of video games

New game gizmo uses mind control

Asher Moses May 7, 2008 - 2:07PM
<http://newsletters.fairfax.com.au/cgi-bin16/DM/y/eBbLr0CX6J0Jhb0QpF10Eu
>

An Australian company is gearing up to release a computer headset that
allows people to control video games using only the power of their
minds.

Emotiv Systems, founded by four Australian scientists in 2003, will
release the $US299 ($315) EPOC headset on the US market this year. 

Australians will be able to order it online.

Featuring 14 sensors that measure electrical impulses from the brain,
the headset - which plugs into the PC's USB port - will enable games to
register facial expressions, emotions and even cognitive thoughts,
allowing players to perform in-game actions just by visualising them.

The headset works in a similar way to voice recognition, in that it must
first be calibrated using Emotiv's software to recognise patterns in the
user's electrical brain impulses, which are used to perform 30 preset
actions.

When the player performs those same thoughts in the game the software
knows to associate them with the correct action, such as rotate object
or push object. (snip)


The headset could also detect the players' emotions - whether they're
bored, angry, engaged, happy, stressed, etc - and adjust difficulty
levels, in-game music and the game environment accordingly.

Characters could also react to a player's emotional cues.

In horror-themed games, enemies could intelligently select the perfect
time to startle a player based on how they feel, rather than having
opponents in the same positions every time a mission is reloaded.

But the most powerful aspect of the EPOC is its ability to detect
thoughts. Players can just think about performing actions, such as
lifting or pushing objects or making them disappear, and have the game
act accordingly without the need to push any keys or buttons.

All of these features have been publicly demonstrated to thousands at
gaming conferences using a role playing game developed by Emotiv. It
will be included for free with the headset and was trialled in Sydney by
smh.com.au.

Do, who came to Australia from Vietnam in 1995 on a university
scholarship, said his intention was not to replace the keyboard or
traditional game controller; he simple wanted to add another layer to
the experience.

"You can still move around using your joystick, using your keypad, using
your mouse and keyboard, just like a normal game, but there is a lot of
activity that we take to another level by adding a headset - such as
being able to levitate an object by thinking about it," he said.

Do said the company was first concentrating on the larger US market -
which has about 9 million hardcore gamers - but was working with
Australian resellers and distributors to launch the product here.

Regardless, Australians would be able to order the headset online from
US retailers or from Emotiv itself.

"We're working very hard to get the headset to other markets at least by
online ordering," Do said.

He said that, while the company was initially focused on gaming, the
technology had applications in any situations where humans interacted
with machines, such as in medicine and robotics. Further, market
research companies and even Hollywood studios were tapping Emotiv's
technology to measure reactions from focus groups.

Emotiv spent two years developing its technology in Sydney before moving
its headquarters to San Francisco, the home of Silicon Valley, in 2005.
It employs about 50 staff - neurologists, biomedical scientists,
mathematicians, engineers - but its entire research team is still based
in Sydney.

Moving to the US, Do said, meant Emotiv was "closer to all the action,
all the [big gaming] companies, all the clients and also access to
money, because, as a start-up company, money is always one of the key
considerations".

He said Emotiv had been approached by numerous suitors keen to acquire
the company, but wanted to first see how far the technology could grow.
Emotiv has also had meetings with the major game console makers about
licensing the technology to them for future products.

In addition to Do, Emotiv was founded by 1998 Young Australian of the
Year Tan Le; Neil Weste, a neuroscientist who sold his chip
manufacturing company Radiata Communications to Cisco in 2000 for $US295
million; and Allan Snyder, the director of the University of Sydney's
Centre for the Mind and winner of the 2001 Marconi Prize.

The four founders self-funded the initial $1 million needed to start the
company but have since raised $US14.5 million in series A funding. It is
now in the process of raising series B funding.
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