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NeuroGaming Conference Profiles the Rise of Brain-Computer Interfaces
kkleiner writes "The first NeuroGaming Conference and Expo took place at the beginning of May to showcase the convergent technologies that are paving the way toward gaming with your mind. Tech news has been dominated with stories about Google Glass and the Oculus Rift, which was on display for attendees to test out. Other technologies that utilize EEG are opening up possibilities of a controller-free gaming experience into virtual realities with unlimited potential. 'Deeper questions surrounding the morality of neurogames will be sure to stir debate. As virtual reality technology inches closer to lifelike resolution, should gamers simulate themselves as characters engaged in acts of violence or criminal activity? It’s unpredictable what these games could uncover about the user as neurogames gain insight into a users’ psyche and how they respond to stimuli at a subconscious level. For instance, a game could uncover how its user particularly enjoys shooting at civilians in gameplay. Games might even become expert at diagnosing psychiatric disorders. As computers become exponentially more powerful, game resolution could fully mimic our ever-present reality.'"
>> ..."game resolution could fully mimic our ever-present reality"
Ranging from "unsatisfying" and "depressing" to "induces high blood pressure"
All it really does is tell the zombies in the game(and, yes, every game these days has zombies) where to find your brain.
Another technology always 20 years from now.
think we just happen to live at the crux--when civilization can teeter one way or the other? no way, its been virtual ground-hog day for centuries. every-time we over heat the planet then invent fusion and blow ourselves up. trust me, i know the architect
Nope - stick to pornography - its the internet, stupid!
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
I'm posting this anonymously for what will be obvious reasons.
First of all I should say that I'm a normal, well-adjusted married man. I was never a sexual deviant and have never paid for sex, I had a grand total of three sexual partners prior to getting married. I view pornography on occasion, but I don't feel like it has any particularly negative effects on my sex life. I dabbled in controlled substances in my 20's, and haven't been in a fist fight since grade 7. I also like video games, but gravitate toward simulations, puzzle games, and adventures. I don't play any shooters or FPS of any kind.
All except GTA. I love that game, and here's the part that I'm ashamed of: I get sexually aroused from beating up prostitutes. I've never admitted that to anyone for obvious reasons, and I can't even explain it to myself.
The last thing I want is a game that starts to judge my neurological reactions to violent or deviant gameplay. It may be helpful in therapeutic situations, but for me... I'll keep fantasy squarely where it belongs. In my own mind.
>should gamers simulate themselves as characters engaged in acts of violence or criminal activity
WE ALREADY DO.
These implications weren't amusing the first time, they're even less amusing after testing keeps repeating the same evidence of no connection.
When your grandparents did it, it was "cops and robbers". /their/ grandparents did it, it was "whites and OhYouAlmostGotMeThere"
When their grandparents did it, it was "cowboys and indians".
When
It's always a good sign that neural interfaces become more popular and most likely cheaper as they enter the consumer market. Although I don't see these as viable input devices for the "core gaming" industry, as conservative input devices still have the advantage of accuracy due to decades of engineering, these interfaces become highly interested for disabled people. But there are already a few projects where EEG headsets are used to control motorized wheelchairs, virtual keyboards and similar applications.
As for the fears of a mind police and thought crimes.
There are already plenty of options to create statistics of gaming behaviour, EEG readings could make this easier but will they show different things? For example if a player enjoys killing civilians in a video game, where he thinks nobody can observe him, do we need EEG readings to confirm this or is it enough to count the amount of civilians he killed, in which time frame and in which frequency? Functional MRI already seem to be successful in measuring racial bias in a better way than traditional tests. To my knowledge EEGs haven't been able to get the required neural responses to make these measurements so far.
Should we be afraid of a 1984 scenario or look forward to Google's Brain-Leech, which might be able to tell us what we want even before we know it even faster?
Given that modern and probably future DRM will require "always online" connections... and businesses tend to monetize every conceivable aspect of their service regardless of how that impacts their customers... and the fact that this week the US federal governments pretty much been proven to be completely butt fucking insane and, I can't believe I'm saying this, Jesse Ventura might not be as crazy as we had all originally thought... It'll be a cold day in hell before I allowed any closed source software to read my mind. I doubt I'd let open source software read it either... but... shit, when we thought this stuff up in scifi novels it was so cool, how'd we ruin it? I give up and am going Amish.
WTF is wrong with these humans? It's like they learn nothing about the Universe at all. I can see this type of technology accenting controller play, but not replacing it. Why? Because you do have hands! Yes, Look, I'm not lying! Many of you are using a direct mind machine interface right now, albeit a bit slower than thought, but clearly more refined than the control these helmets allow. Why, for a proficient typist the words spill right onto the page, and even auto-correct without explicitly thinking to hit the backspace key, or navigate the cursor and selection.
Hundreds of Millions of years of evolution have bought humans highly sensitive dexterous appendages for multiple simultaneous Input and Output channels; Yet their "advancements" in "intuitive" user interface are to just leave the most amazing "controllers" on the planet dangling at your sides while they try to detect brain waves? That's so similar to voluntarily grunting as a mode of communication instead of speaking that it lacks humor.
Don't get me wrong, I love new technology, but no you're not replacing the hand held controller. It's how humans have evolved to manipulate the Universe. Thought input doesn't give you the necessary tactile feedback to modulate your input. This is Elementary Cybernetics folks: Sense, Decide, Act.... SENSE. You need sensory feedback in order to decide to act, and thus converge on the proper input level. A keypress, button, or trigger informs you directly by way of near instantaneous immediate sensory feedback in a way that waving your arms about in front of a camera, or wearing a brain-wave detecting hat just can't.
The place for these things is perhaps to pull up and navigate on screen huds or issue commands to squadmates, or select weapon groups, or reactive-paint colors, Minecraft materials, etc. while you continue to control the game with hands and feet. I have pedals for my steering-wheel controller. The steering-wheel has force feedback -- The wheel fights back (it gives me feedback about the game-world). I was never able to compete in racing games until the day after I got that controller. I purchased it to develop games with, not because I enjoyed racing games or ever expected to be able to play them with skill, and yet I now do. The point is that there is plenty of room left for innovation in tactile response controls too. There's no false dichotomy. Hands-free controls can be used along with hand-held controls to give you more control.
It's really like they're not even observing the same damn species, I swear.
it's like economists having conferences about the prospects for a vibrant economy
everyone likes to talk about what they are paid to work towards but will never achieve
Yeeeehaaa!
Dear god, that would be horrifying.
... Until your monsters of the id come out to play...
This is not going to do anything, people will still realize it is a simple video game....
When they can figure out how to hack your brain into a computer generated reality, where you can feel emotion, and sensations. everything you experience in real life then you can ask or debate over the "moral" compass of video gamers.
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