New videogame virtually a mindgame

[sailornyanko]

MAKUHARI, Japan (AFP) - Willpower is set to replace fast fingers in a new video game in which players move characters through a headset that monitors their brain waves.
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California-based NeuroSky Inc. showed off the new headset -- named Mindset -- at the Tokyo Game Show, the industry's biggest exhibition which opened near the Japanese capital Thursday.

The Mindset monitors whether the player is focused or relaxed and accordingly moves the character on a personal computer.

"We brought this to the game show as a new interface, a new platform for game creators," NeuroSky managing director Kikuo Ito told AFP.

Children's games using the system will hit the US market next year, Ito said.

"We are exploring the use of brain waves in the game industry because games are fun and so close to people," he said.

"Once people get used to the idea of using brain waves for various applications, I hope we will see various products using this technology," he said.

In distance learning courses, for example, teachers could monitor whether students were attentive, Ito said.

Train drivers and motorists could use it to judge their stress levels and alertness, Ito added.

Japan's Keio University put similar technology to use this year to let a paralysed man take a virtual stroll on the popular Second Life website, with the machine reading what he wanted to do with his immobile legs.

NeuroSky said the Mindset could help people with other types of disabilities.

"For people with difficulty speaking, this can be a tool for communication," Ito said.

Ito was hopeful that the technology would eventually go on sale outside the United States. Prices have not been announced.

Source:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081009/ennew_afp/entertainmentjapanusgamepsychologyneuros ky

While that will mean that lazy gamers will get even less exercise, I think that's really cool. We could be just one step closer to having a real life version of "The World"!!

[taily]

I don't want some computer knowing what I'm thinking DO YOU THINK THEY COULD INVENT THIS WITHOUT INVENTING A.I WELL YOU'RE WRONG BECAUSE THE COMPUTER WILL TRICK YOU AND THE CAKE IS A LIE.

[Vaikyuko]

Source:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081009/ennew_afp/entertainmentjapanusgamepsychologyneuros ky

While that will mean that lazy gamers will get even less exercise, I think that's really cool. We could be just one step closer to having a real life version of "The World"!!

There is a real life version of The World, it's called .hack//fragment (with a special umlaut a, I'm too lazy to type it in the post). It was basically just the PS2 games without the story, plus online (servers have shut down) and was Japanese only.

I know you meant with the whole video goggles thing, but to be honest, we have everything but those already. =\

[Ikari Warrior]

What really struck my interest was a program that let a man walk around based on what he was telling his legs. If that sort of programming can be applied to robotics, we could be looking at fully functional prosthetics! or even some manner of brace for paralyzed persons. Truly, the applications are limitless and astounding!

[Caster13]

Awesome. If this type of stuff is coming out, then maybe there's a chance of mecha coming out sometime early next decade.:D

[CrossboneGundam]

The problem with that sort of thing is that it's not a real direct mental control, you have to generate a specific type of brainwaves to do a certain input. You have to do things like think about sex to make the cursor move left, think about something sad to make it go right, do a math problem in your head to make it go up, etc.

[VidelCoolGirl]

The problem with that sort of thing is that it's not a real direct mental control, you have to generate a specific type of brainwaves to do a certain input. You have to do things like think about sex to make the cursor move left, think about something sad to make it go right, do a math problem in your head to make it go up, etc.

Which would be a problem, or rather, be hard to do, since if you wanted to move normally, those types of things would be the only thing you could think about. It would be more a mental hurdle, rather than a technical one.

[tenshi_a]

The problem with that sort of thing is that it's not a real direct mental control, you have to generate a specific type of brainwaves to do a certain input. You have to do things like think about sex to make the cursor move left, think about something sad to make it go right, do a math problem in your head to make it go up, etc.

Haha, I can just picture an MMORPG like "The World", but with every single player... just continually spinning to the left... :lol:

"The cursor's stuck! I can't get it to do anything else!" :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Ikari Warrior]

The problem with that sort of thing is that it's not a real direct mental control, you have to generate a specific type of brainwaves to do a certain input.
Telling your legs to walk sounds like a pretty specific input command to me.

[Leader Desslock]

^ It is. Too specific for a human to know how to do. Humans don't know which mental "muscles to flex" to generate a command as specific as "move, legs!"

But what humans CAN do (with training and practice) is alter their brainwave patterns slightly. By thinking certain types of thoughts, certain patterns are generated in the brain. Those patterns are subtle, but detectable. And if they're detectable, they can be used to power an input device.

So the person practices generating a half dozen or so distinguishable mental states by concentrating on relaxing, or getting angry, etc. Detection equipment is placed on the person's head, the states are generated one at a time, and the computer is told to associate each pattern with an input command. The control software is run, and from that point on, if the person wants to move his wheelchair forward (for example), he needs to generate the mental state that's been associated with the "forward" command.

I remember trying a virtual reality simulator in Boston. You had to stand on a motion-sensitive platform and wear a helmet with a 3-d display. About all I got out of it was a headache. Note to self: People without depth perception should never wear 3-d goggles.

[CrossboneGundam]

Telling your legs to walk sounds like a pretty specific input command to me.

If it worked the way you think you wouldn't be able to do anything in the game but walk as far as the walls of the room you're in.

[GreatNekoKoneko]

...if there was "THE WORLD", people would only start to ***** about how they don't have enough gear, and of course, the ever popular - "GOLD PLS".

[sailornyanko]

I know you meant with the whole video goggles thing, but to be honest, we have everything but those already. =\

The goggles and an emo player playing a character of the opposite sex that is trapped inside of the game and allies with a dangerous program that can erase the entire game in a whim.

[Leader Desslock]

^ I think I read about that game. Isn't it an adaptation of the manga "Serial Experiments: Ranma Suzumiya"?

[Ikari Warrior]

If it worked the way you think you wouldn't be able to do anything in the game but walk as far as the walls of the room you're in.

Well, I don't know how they programmed it, perhaps you've done more homework than I.

Dess, when I wrote my response, what you said came to mind. "Tell legs to move" seems like something too simple, such that inputs would be confused the way CBG described.

This kind of technology is in its infancy, though. I'm thinking with enough time, perhaps you can just think "walk" instead of "sex" and being stuck in a perpetual left-hand turn.

[Caster13]

Well supposedly us men think of sex every 7 seconds. But when it comes to nerds...yea.