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Brain Controlled Computer Headset
July 25th 2008 16:41
A US high-tech company has created a headset allowing computer game lovers to use their thoughts to move mountains and make objects disappear on screen.
The EPOC headset features 16 sensors that press against a user’s scalp to measure electrical activity in the brain using electroencephalography. A built-in gyro tracks head movement. The sensors also register users’ moods and facial expressions, merging the data in computer software that ‘learns’ to match readings with what people are thinking,
There is a direct correlation between thought and what happens on screen. It really fulfils this long fantasy that people have had of moving objects just with thought.” A videogame will be included with the headset when the package goes on sale for 299 dollars at the Emotiv website and selected shops.
A test of the headset showed that after ‘training’ the EPOC system for less than a minute one could spin, push, pull and lift objects onscreen, or make them vanish, by simply thinking about it.
Emotiv has a software development kit available to videogame makers as well as programmers of “anything that involves a human and a computer” including those involved in virtual worlds, cars and medical care. The technology could be used to let virtual world characters referred to as ‘avatars’ reflect the real-world expressions and moods of the people they represent online.
The kit for third-party software savants to weave thought-control into programmes has reportedly been downloaded from the Emotiv website more than 1,000 times. Many law enforcement agencies also appear to be interested in the headset’s ability to read people’s minds.
A part from gaming it could also be used in medical to communicate with stroke patients and paralysed patients could be given new methods to communicate.
The EPOC headset features 16 sensors that press against a user’s scalp to measure electrical activity in the brain using electroencephalography. A built-in gyro tracks head movement. The sensors also register users’ moods and facial expressions, merging the data in computer software that ‘learns’ to match readings with what people are thinking,
There is a direct correlation between thought and what happens on screen. It really fulfils this long fantasy that people have had of moving objects just with thought.” A videogame will be included with the headset when the package goes on sale for 299 dollars at the Emotiv website and selected shops.
A test of the headset showed that after ‘training’ the EPOC system for less than a minute one could spin, push, pull and lift objects onscreen, or make them vanish, by simply thinking about it.
Emotiv has a software development kit available to videogame makers as well as programmers of “anything that involves a human and a computer” including those involved in virtual worlds, cars and medical care. The technology could be used to let virtual world characters referred to as ‘avatars’ reflect the real-world expressions and moods of the people they represent online.
The kit for third-party software savants to weave thought-control into programmes has reportedly been downloaded from the Emotiv website more than 1,000 times. Many law enforcement agencies also appear to be interested in the headset’s ability to read people’s minds.
A part from gaming it could also be used in medical to communicate with stroke patients and paralysed patients could be given new methods to communicate.
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