Mind games: computer headset lets brain control action
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It's mind over machine: a US high-tech company has created a headset
allowing computer
<http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Mind_games_computer_headset_lets_br_070820\
08.html#> game lovers to use their thoughts to move mountains and make
objects disappear on screen.

Emotiv, a San Francisco-based startup that marries neuroscience and
computer engineering, says its EPOC gaming headset offers only a glimpse
of what the technology has to offer.

"There is no natural barrier from what we can see," Emotiv co-founder
Tan Le told AFP while demonstrating the headset in the firm's office.

"This is the tip of the iceberg for what is possible for us. There will
be a convergence of gesture-based technology and the brain as a new
interface -- the Holy Grail is the mind."

Gamers will be able to get their hands on the gadget in time for the
winter holiday season, the company says.

The EPOC headset features 16 sensors that press against a user's scalp
to measure electrical activity in a 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, according to Le.

"There is a direct correlation between thought and what happens on
screen," Le said. "It really fulfills this long fantasy 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 select shops.

The martial arts fantasy game has a rural Asian setting. An animated
"master" leads players through exercises that include lifting mountains
with their minds.

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.

"Gamers are early adopters of technology and thought control is the
ultimate fantasy of gamers," Le said.

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, according to Emotiv engineer Marco Della Torre.

The kit for third-party software savants to weave thought-control into
programs has reportedly been downloaded from the Emotiv website more
than 1,000 times.

"We have a lot of Fortune 500 companies interested," Le said.

Even law enforcement agencies have expressed interest in the headset's
ability to read people's minds.

"It certainly could be used as a very accurate polygraph," Le said. "If
you have seen something before, there is no hiding it. There is brain
recognition."

Medical applications could include giving stroke victims or people in
comas new ways to communicate.

People wearing headsets while listening to online music could have tunes
automatically tagged based on whether they made them happy, sad,
excited, or bored.

Le, an Australian telecommunications entrepreneur named Young Australian
of the Year in 1998, said the idea for the headset sprang from a chat
about brains and technology during dinner in 2003.

Le and fellow entrepreneur Nam Do founded Emotiv with neuroscientist
Allan Snyder and computer chip designer Neil Weste.




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