Slashdot Mirror
Brainwave Controlled Game From Square Enix
zombies-alive writes "Square Enix and Neurosky, maker of wearable sensory equipment, are coming out with a new 'Brainwave-Controlled' RPG. The game will be demonstrated at the Tokyo Game Show for the (Windows) PC, which features the NeuroSky MindSet headset. At this moment, the headset only detects the gamer's level of concentration and relaxation by means of a single electrode placed on the forehead."
OK, now tell me how this helps me slaughter n00bs more efficiently.
...Windows crashes and accidentally erases your mind?
Your ad here.
There is no spoon!
Make SELinux enforcing again!
...do I wear my aluminum foil over or under this electrode?
You could probably do Ms Pacman blindfolded :)
oooh kinky ;)
...when I get slaughtered by a boss, and I realize that no amount of skill will compensate for the requisite three hours of level grinding to go before I have a chance of winning.
It's a cute gimmick, but this will likely equate to a single extra button - a hands-off on-off switch. It's a bit of a stretch to say the game will be "brain controlled". If the game can be controlled with a single button, then that's a little more shallow than RPGs I normally play.
My fear would be that this would mar an otherwise fun RPG with a pointless piece of flaky hardware. I'll wait and see how the reviews go, I guess.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
A way to look more nerdy while playing an RPG!
The entirety of the wealth generated by the Internet, all Software ever written, and every piece of adult content ever generated, will pale in comparison to the wealth generated when you can download into your brain a sexual fantasy that seems completely real. In fact, this may be man kind's last invention.
"No time to work on that, I just finished my custom simulation of Planet Bigboner, which is populated exclusively by 19-year-old-Claudia-Schiffer-Nymphomaniac-Clones who all worship me as their Great Deity. Sometimes I am a just and fair God, sometimes an angry one. I will be playing this until I die or they turn off my power, now go away and don't interrupt my simulation or I will kill you."
My favorite quote doesn't fit into 120 characters. Now no one will like me.
They had an exhibit at the science center in calgary that let two people sit down and each wear this helmet strap thing. The more you relaxed, the closer a ball got to your opponent's side. Conversely, the more 'stressed' you were, the closer it got to your side, forcing you to "try to relax" even more. We played it 4 or 5 times, the first few genuinely, then with me trying as hard as i could to be stressed and concentrate as much as possible. I found absolutely no correlation between me and the ball
while i think this technology may have some useful purposes in the future, i'm a little disturbed at the type of applications it's already being marketed towards:
i'm honestly afraid that this technology will be used by marketing/advertising firms to develop even more insidious ways of manipulating consumers. with marketing/advertising permeating all aspects of popular culture, even being used by politicians to frame political issues in ways that will win them public approval, we're increasingly living in a society of mass manipulation. we don't need to give the persuaders an even greater degree of control over us by letting them have unprecedented access to the thoughts and mental processes of consumers.
though i'm sure they'll probably start handing these out at focus groups so that they can tap directly into the subconscious desires of the individual as the ultimate form marketing research. marketing gurus are already helping major corporations appeal to the primitive reptilian minds of consumers to exploit people's subconscious associations. unfortunately, this results in consumers making irrational purchase decisions, which is at least partly responsible for the family SUV phenomena in the U.S.
"At this moment, the headset only detects the gamer's level of concentration and relaxation by means of a single electrode placed on the forehead." If I wanted to know how you are concentrating or relaxing, the forehead is not where I would put that single electrode...
I'm surprised no one else has mentioned the OCZ Neural Impulse Actuator yet.
Its essentially the same thing, but with a USB interface for PCs.
http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/ocz_peripherals/nia-neural_impulse_actuator
Price is a little steep for a first gen product, but it has been quite widely reviewed and said to actually work.
Sorry their device probably does not measure brainwaves. A single electrode on the forehead would measure only forehead muscle activity (EMG) and eye movements (EOG), but not brainwave activity (EEG). The developers are basically banking that you wrinkle your forehead when you "concentrate". As an aside, EMG is really easy to record, while EEG is much more complicated and not well-suited to a consumer device.
I hope it's the marketing department BS and not the inventors who are misrepresenting their product.
[I am a professional EEG researcher.]