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Neural Interface for Gaming Getting Closer?
An anonymous reader writes "Mercury News is reporting that a neural interface for gaming may be in the not-so-distant future thanks to at least two start-ups developing this technology. From the article: 'The goal is to create game console add-ons costing less than $100. Some of the game play features can be conscious -- such as forcing someone to concentrate in order to drive a car faster or toss something at an enemy. Others can be subconscious. The game could slow down, for instance, if the sensors pick up an increase in anxiety, Lee said. The company hasn't set a timetable for the product launches of its customers.'"
The most astonishing part is that NeuroSky actually got some seed money (maybe from the CEOs mom?) and are looking for a first round of venture capital.
What the article describes is that they offer a cheap EEG. That's about it. The second part ( ... interpreting what they mean ... ) is complete bullshit. What you can measure from an EEG is the sum of all the neurons in your cortex firing all the time. There are typical patterns, e.g. the general frequency changes when you are relaxed. This is rather easy to determine. But controlling a video game? Imagine "to fire press button A or meditate for five minutes".
This is by the way exactly what the other company mentioned (CyberLearning Technology) sells for a lot of money to hopeless parents with kids that have ADHD. Basically if you do not concentrate, you cannot reach maximum speed. A simple biofeedback system, think "$5 self-build lie detector with skin resistance measuring", only with a $584 price tag. It actually works, but the price is somewhat ridiculous.
Now there are ways to use an EEG to control a more advanced interface. If you have enough sensors you can try to calculate the 3D source from where a pattern came in the brain, like you can reversely calculate where a sound came from if you place several microphones in a room and compare the different runtimes of the sound waves. thus giving you much more precise input. I heard a lecture about this at the Aachen University of Technology almost 10 years ago, a very interesting cooperation between their medical department and their computer scientists, than using a massive amount of machine power. You still have to solve the puzzle how to consciously create these patterns.
On this years CeBIT I talked to a group from another university that presented an EEG interface for paraplegics. They could determine whether the signal came from the right or left hemisphere of the brain by having the person "think" left or right. The system allowed the user to enter about 15 characters per minute after a lot of training, but actually ran on a recent PC.
Unfortunately the rate cannot be easily increased, since the signals are kind of fuzzy. But if DSPs and some generations of software allowed to squeeze >25MBit through a pair of copper lines which where said to top at 56kbit, they may do something similar to EEGs. But not soon. NeuroSky and Cyberlearning will long be forgotten by then.
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I want a neural interface to Google.
"The company hasn't set a timetable for the product launches of its customers."
Given that current neural interfaces only work worth a damn when surgical implantation is involved, not having a timetable is pretty understandable.
What I really want to know is how these companies plan to avoid bankruptcy in the meanwhile. Of course, given what passes for a success in business in twenty-first century America, maybe they aren't.
Others can be subconscious. The game could slow down, for instance, if the sensors pick up an increase in anxiety, Lee said.
If they can pull this off, I wonder how it will play with real brain function. I have read about how people perceive time to slow when they are in a situation that causes an adrenaline rush. If the game was realistic enough, it is possible it could cause the player's adrenaline to start up. It would be interesting to see how it works/what happens in that case.
Given how buggy games are at release these days, I shudder to think of the ramifications of neural interfaces connected to these. In the beginning when communication is one way, one could imagine the issues that arise from a stray thought. As it is, Oblivion crashes when I just exit the game. Now, add in an interface that reads my thoughts. I'd hate to see what happens when my mind strays away from the game and to something like, I don't know, my child crying or some such thing.
Now when the communication goes both ways, things could get crazier. I finally sit down to play Duke Nukem Forever and 5 minutes in a hit a bug that makes me wet my pants start calling my left shoe "Herman". Ah technology.
I enjoy the occasional PC game, but I can't stand the notion that every time I sit down to play a new title I've got to learn a whole new set of commands.
I'm not as familiar with console games--which you'd think would benefit from interface standardizaation, but they, too, seem to have a steep learning curve. When you're an old fart like myself, you just don't want to expend the time.
A true, intuitive neural interface that would allow you to just sit and play without taking the time to learn a new interface, would overcome that barrier and perhaps enhance the market.
IF it works, that is.
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
We already have a pretty effective neural interface to video game consoles.
They are called "hands".