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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.'"
Now how long will it be until this sort of input is reversed and a game will directly impact our physical body?
Well thats certainly not a way to win over your demograph...
If this happens, gamers will get even weaker. As it stands, gamers can be proud of their oddly-muscled forearms, fingers and thumbs. But what will they have in the future? A vein on their forehead that they can pulse on command.
If only there were some way of connecting the video game controller directly into certain neural pathways. Simply by thinking about, we could stimulate those pathways and control the game. Maybe there's some way we could piggy back onto existing neural connections... in fact, given that much of our neurology is connected to our masculature system, I wonder if there was some way we could tap into that. Like, when our brain stimulated these "muscle nerves", we could have that activate the controller in some direct way.
Nah, sorry. I'm getting waaaaaaay too blue sky here.
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
A throw-away comment from an AC- but seriously, imagine the borg-like capabilities we'd all possess if every time we needed knowledge, we could tap into google without taking away from whatever we were doing? Matrix things like "Tank, get me a pilot program for a B-212 helicopter" would be somewhat possible- though we'd still have to 'read' the material. Imagine how well we'd all do on MCAT's or LSAT's, etc. Person drops dead on the floor in front of you, all of a sudden you can look up exactly what to do and what could be wrong.
It is unlikely that something like this will be available in our lifetime- though this 'singularity' some say is close, I have a hard time believing it. Still, the possibilities are both frightening and inspiring.
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'm working for a group that does ECoG (Electro-Cortocography), and even our resolution is too poor to accurately control things in more than two dimensions. A breakdown of the different resolutions of Brain-Computer-Interfacing is here. The problem with EEG is that the skull acts as a signal damper that disperses and blurs the electromagnetic waves created by the neurons. Though we can still detect the waves created, it becomes increasingly more difficult to discern what area of the brain created these waves, much less what neuron(s) did.
A breakdown of the different types of BCI currently being developed and researched:
More information about BCI and ECoG can be found in a presentation from a WashU professor. Check pages 9-11 for some good slides