Thursday, March 15, 2007

...and I can kill you with my mind

One of the coolest things I saw, without doubt, at this year's GDC was a demonstration of some hardware that enabled mind-controlled gameplay. I was skeptical at first until I got a chance to put on one of Neurosky's sensor-enabled headpieces and give it a whirl. It took a minute to get the knack of it but then I was pushing and lifting in-game objects just by looking at them and...concentrating. Way cool!

There were other groups offering demonstrations of similar technologies but I didn't get a chance to try them out as well. The technology still seems a bit tempermental and clunky - (e.g., one not functioning if the sensors came in any contact with a users' hair and looking and the other looking like a futuristic bike helmet) but the fact that it works leaves a lot of promise in the years to come as some of these minor details get worked out.

Here's Gamasutra's article about Emotiv's similar technology/goal of mind-controlled gaming: GDC: Emotiv Promises Mind Controlled Games

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