Emotiv EPOC Neuroheadset: Control Games with Thought
Emotiv will be selling this "EPOC" neuroheadset, allowing gamers to control characters simply by the power of thought. (Unlike previous systems, which required the hands to act as a proxy interface.) The headset will be available around the holidays for $300 with a custom game that will take advantage of the 30 different expressions which can be recognized, including:immersion, excitement, meditation, tension and frustration; facial expressions such as smile, laugh, wink, crossed eyes, shock (eyebrows raised), anger (eyebrows furrowed), horizontal eye movement, smirk and grimace (clenched teeth); and cognitive actions such as push, pull, lift, drop and rotate (on six different axis) as well as a completely new category of action based on visualization, the first of which is the ability to make objects disappear.The EPOC will be first released for the PC. I am less interested in how the EPOC will be used to control games and more interested in its use as a secondary interface method for general computing. I would love to be able to switch applications or control my media playback with only a raised eyebrow.
Kotaku's contemptible corsair Brian Crecente had a head-on with the EPOC at this year's Game Developer's Conference.
I was a little concerned with the underlying technology, though. From the demonstrations I saw and participated in, the device seemed mostly to detect whether you were or weren't doing one thing. In other words, it could tell when I was trying to float a rock or not trying. But it was hard to tell just how sophisticated that detection was. Could it, for instance, differentiate between my trying to levitate a rock and make one disappear? The Emotiv people said it absolutely could, but they didn't demonstrate that.
Press Release [BusinessWire.com via Crunchgear]
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I was also there at last year's GDC. The demo was pretty weak. It seems like the thing is generating (at most) a few bits of information.
It's definitely *not* the sort of thing where you can just think of moving up and the screen moves up.
It might be a cool preview of things to come, but the demo I saw was pretty uninspiring. At the time, I remember wondering if it did anything at all, or was just a hoax playing on the power of suggestion.
One word:
CEREBRO.
You have been warned.
Probably muscle-controlled, like the Atari Mindlink and the Neurosky. The "power of thought" marketing is simply a legal lie, in that all muscles are powered by thought.
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/12/neurosky-repeat.html
As a physically disabled gamer, I'd love to give this a try. I definitely wouldn't pay $300 without testing it first, though
All due apologies to #4, who could clearly benefit from this sort of thing, but: Personally I fail to see the advantage in learning how to use my face like a hand, to say nothing of the potential cognitive dissonance arising between your "game face" and "real face", if you get my drift. I envision either mode involuntarily kicking in and sending the wrong signal...either to the game, or to the person interviewing you for that job. And if, for example, you have to kill a whole lot of zombies, YOUR FACE WILL GET STUCK LIKE THAT FOREVER!
I don't care if it works or not. Add a few blinking LEDs and some theremin-based sound effects and you've got one kick-butt super-futuristic fashion accessory, there.
The real entertainment value in this thing, I suspect, will be in the upcoming action shots showing what looks like a skeletal metal crab having sex with a nerd's head.