Emotiv’s EPOC Neuroheadset lets you control games with your mind
Although it looks like some sort of strange spider on your head, the Emotiv EPOC headset is actually a much smarter creature. The device lets you use your mind to interact with a computer, allowing you to control games via your thoughts.
Emotiv has been showcasing the technology at this week’s Game Developer Conference and several people have tried it out with pretty impressive results. They report being able to move a cube around the screen by just thinking about the direction it should go.
To do so, the software is first calibrated with the user’s thoughts. It tells the user to think about the box moving up, for example, and records what that person is thinking. Then, the next time the same thought occurs the box will actually move up.
The company claims that EPOC can also detect more than 30 different expressions, emotions, and actions such as smiling, winking, grimacing, and angry or happy feelings.
Emotiv’s president Tan Le said, “Emotiv is a neuro-engineering company and we’ve created a brain computer interface that reads electrical impulses in the brain and translates them into commands that a video game can accept and control the game dynamically.”
What’s more, EPOC works wirelessly, so you don’t need a wire attached to your head to use the device.
If all of that sounds too futuristic to be possible, how about this: Emotiv promises that the headset will be released before Christmas this year. It will be available at a price of $299 (which is very reasonable for the crazy cool tech you’re getting) and will come bundled with a game that uses the technology. We’re drooling already.
We think the technology has great potential in the future, but might be ignored by game developers at first. Creating games to harness this kind of new power will take time and money, something that will not be invested until the product proves itself. However, as users begin to adopt EPOC, game developers should jump all over it, just as they have with the new control style of the Wii.
Eventually, other uses for a headset like this will be found. Games are just one application. Think about controlling your whole computer via your mind – no typing, moving a mouse, or clicking. The computer will just do what you want it to. That’s probably far into the future, but expect something close within our lifetimes.
Edit: Apparently EPOC isn’t yet working quite as promised.
Tags: emotiv, epoc, gaming, mind control, neuroheadset
February 20th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Awesome! Now I can get fatter from diet coke (just 1 calorie) because I won’t even have to move my hands! Now all that’s needed is a heated toilet seat with automatic butt-cleaner and a liquid food/coke dispenser and I won’t have to get up at all!
Technology is awesome!
February 21st, 2008 at 2:27 pm
because using your thumbs instead is adequate exercise.
February 21st, 2008 at 8:17 pm
I think Nintendo is creating the funner stuff,… DDR and the WiiMote. I’ve been in the Games Industry for 12 years and nothing has sold the market so fast like these two gaming controllers. I mean games are supposed to encourage MORE interaction, not complete stillness. It’s cool that Emotiv designed such an Interface, but I don’t see the real purpose in it except for Paraplegics.
Thus, I must agree with Northstar,.. this gaming interface will encourage obesity and complete slackerhood habits. Other’s “think” that it will help develop Telekinesis in the realworld. However, they’re completely wrong. PKT, works on a completely different level of mentality that no Scientific instrument is able to detect or measure with absolute and predictable certainty.
February 25th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
I personally have been following this since Emotiv first announced it and I can’t wait it for it to come out. I’m not super interested in this, but once it begins to gain in popularity, a bunch of other companies will try to come out with their own versions of the product.
I look forward to the point where I can use technology like this to control my whole computer. Then, I would no longer be forced to sit in front of the computer; I could, for example, browse the web and lift weights or run on a tread mill at the same time. This type of technology will actually enable us to be more mobile than before.
February 25th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
That’s a great point, Nathan. I didn’t think of that, but I’m all for us getting up and moving around a bit more. Hopefully that can come true like you said.