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Bringing Neurofeedback Gaming To the Masses

Posted by Unknown on from the kill-with-a-single-thought dept.

New submitter captioning writes "The Los Angeles Times reports on Throw Trucks With Your Mind, a multiplayer first-person 'gunless shooter' that uses an inexpensive, wireless EEG (electroencephalograph) headset to measure players' brainwaves and move virtual objects on screen. Depending on the strength of players' beta waves (emitted while concentrating), players toss small items like crates or catapult objects like trucks. Players can also draw things toward them by relaxing (and emitting alpha waves). Greater relaxation results in more power as well, so players learn quickly to be careful when attracting trucks. The success of Throw Trucks could lead to stronger demand for neural feedback games worldwide."

9 of 37 comments (clear)

  1. Neurosky headset by wimpy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I have such a Neurosky headset but find it of no use - the output seems to be just random. Whether meditating, concentrating very hard or playing a game, it is always fluctuating in a similar pattern. What does work is eye blinking, but that is just picking up the muscle contraction and not the brainwaves.

    1. Re:Neurosky headset by EdZ · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The Neroskys, as EEG headsets, are crap. You'd be lucky to pick up anything other than forehead muscle contractions. The Emotive EPOC isn't half bad, and is probably the cheapest way to get an actually functional EEG headset that you don't have to build yourself. If you want to do any actual controlling of things with conscious intent, it's the bare minimum, but you'd be better off with a full electrode mesh and some proper instrumentation amplifiers, but that's not going to be anywhere close to cheap or easy to work with without a good amount of prior knowledge.

      This "Throw Trucks With Your Mind" thing is a waste of money, unless you really want to play "Sometimes Throw Trucks With Your Forehead".

    2. Re:Neurosky headset by drkim · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I've got the OCZ Neural Impulse Actuator Review (NIA) and it works fairly well for gaming.
      As far as I can tell, it does pick up muscle contractions (eyebrow raising) better than brain activity. Takes a lot of training, too.

      I had a lot of intermittent reading trouble with it, until I started smearing the sensors with electrode paste, then I got more consistent results.

      http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/649

    3. Re:Neurosky headset by pitchpipe · · Score: 2

      This ted talk was from 2010. Looks simple and like it works really well. Not sure why you'd need a "full electrode mesh." Not sure what the hell's taking it so long either.

      --
      Look where all this talking got us, baby.
    4. Re:Neurosky headset by EdZ · · Score: 2

      Not sure why you'd need a "full electrode mesh."

      Because EEG is a measure of voltage from outside of the skull. With just two electrodes, the best you can possibly measure is whether the average of all anterior-posterior (front-back) aligned neurons is mostly in one direction or the other. Laterally oriented neurons are ignored, and you have no idea what's going on in different regions.
      As you add electrodes, you resolution increases and you can start to guess whether activity is occurring in which quadrant of the brain. Add some more, and you might even be guess as to which region of the brain activity is occurring in.
      It's more like a tomographic measurement than 'stuff is occurring under this electrode': you can only measure the relative voltage difference between pairs of electrodes, and to pick out signals from one area you need to measure the signals from the entire brain to cancel that out.

  2. I adopted early and managed to save money! by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Funny

    I find that, using only the nearest wall and/or bystander and my fists I am able to get incredibly realistic haptic feedback based on my brain's state. Even better, the graphics are amazing(except when I try to play it in the bar, not sure if there is a hardware compatibility problem)!

  3. They are recording the wrong signals by Hentes · · Score: 2

    If neural controllers want to ever become practical, they should start recording signals from the cerebellum, the region of the brain responsible for motor control.

    1. Re:They are recording the wrong signals by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      While the cerebellum is certainly involved in motor control, you cannot really say that it is 'responsible.' Most researchers studying how the human nervous system controls movement accept that the cerebellum is involved in feedback error correction, motor learning, and possibly feed-forward modulation of control to compensate for changes in body orientation. This is why people with cerebellar damage present with cerebellar ataxia rather than loss of the ability to move.

      Controlling external objects based on cerebellar EEG is further complicated by the fact that the cerebellum is a deep structure, and it is nearly impossible to actually record EEG from this tissue. The primary motor cortex on the other hand, is well known as the cortical site where motor commands originate, and is conveniently located on the superficial surface of the cortex in a strip running approximately from ear to ear. This makes the motor cortex a much more attractive target than the cerebellum.

  4. There's an easier way... by narcc · · Score: 2

    What's wrong with just good old fashioned GSR? They're less complicated, less expensive, and (compared to cheap EEG's) accurate and reliable.

    I guess technically you can do less with than with a working EEG, but I've yet to see a usable and inexpensive home model. (Strange, as the average electronics hobbyist can build a less expensive and more reliable two-channel EEG in an afternoon.)

    --
    Required reading for internet skeptics