Gaming Headset: 30,000 Pennies For Your Thoughts
San Francisco-based Emotiv has developed a headset that that can read and interpret brainwave activity and translate it into video game commands. It's called the Epoc.
It is hoped that the device will make the emotional responses of characters to situations in games and virtual worlds more realistic. "If you laughed or felt happy after killing a character in a game then your virtual buddy could admonish you for being callous," Tan Le, the president of Emotiv, said.
So far, the headset can detect more than 30 different expressions, actions and emotions, including smiling, winking, raised eyebrows, laugter and shock. It can also pick up more basic emotions such as excitement and frustration, and - perhaps the most ingenious application - can command a character to perform an action merely by the player thinking of it.
Among the actions it understands are push, pull, lift, drop, and rotate.
Emotiv says the $300 device will connect to all the current gaming consoles or a PC. And it's wireless capable, so you can run around the room while you're killing Brutes and Grunts and making faces. Excuse me, I've got to go make a mashup of this device, Doom, a Wii controller, and a real chainsaw. BRB.
It is hoped that the device will make the emotional responses of characters to situations in games and virtual worlds more realistic. "If you laughed or felt happy after killing a character in a game then your virtual buddy could admonish you for being callous," Tan Le, the president of Emotiv, said.
So far, the headset can detect more than 30 different expressions, actions and emotions, including smiling, winking, raised eyebrows, laugter and shock. It can also pick up more basic emotions such as excitement and frustration, and - perhaps the most ingenious application - can command a character to perform an action merely by the player thinking of it.
Among the actions it understands are push, pull, lift, drop, and rotate.
Emotiv says the $300 device will connect to all the current gaming consoles or a PC. And it's wireless capable, so you can run around the room while you're killing Brutes and Grunts and making faces. Excuse me, I've got to go make a mashup of this device, Doom, a Wii controller, and a real chainsaw. BRB.
