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.'"

Comments

Reality and games...

[Picass0]

>> ..."game resolution could fully mimic our ever-present reality"

Ranging from "unsatisfying" and "depressing" to "induces high blood pressure"

Brraaaaaaains

[i kan reed]

All it really does is tell the zombies in the game(and, yes, every game these days has zombies) where to find your brain.

Mind reading

[Hentes]

Another technology always 20 years from now.

Re:Mind reading

[dpidcoe]

As an owner of several neural interface devices, mainly an emotiv neuroheadset and also the brain controlled cat ears, I can confirm that this tech is not only 20 years out, but use as a game controller isn't even the proper application for it. There's a good ~second of input lag, coupled with poor detection over all, and most peoples lack of ability to control their general brain patterns (of the sort that these devices pick up at least) with any degree of speed or precision makes it a very very poor choice for use with anything that needs to be consciously controlled in a timely fashion. And the problem is more fundamental than simple tech hurdles. Even if we could reliably detect and monitor the output of every single neuron in the brain I don't think it would be possible to build a decent gaming control rig just by the nature of how the brain works.

The cat ears on the other hand are a much better application (and I'm saying this as someone who hates anime only slightly less than I hate furries). They're outputting additional data (your mood, as detected/determined by the sensor) without any conscious input and in a situation in which a few seconds of delay really doesn't make a huge difference. Using detection like this for something such as music selection, subtle lighting changes, changing the notification settings on your phone, etc. are applications that this kind of tech is much better suited for.

Ashamed to admit it?

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Ashamed to admit it?

[Immerman]

Not so terribly unexplainable - sex and violence have been intimately connected in our species until very recently, only takes a couple minor psycholigical short-circuits for that violence to be redirected from the competition to the prize.

A word to the wise from someone who has dabbled extensively in fantasy: be careful which fantasies you indulge, they have a tendency to feed on themselves and begin to leak into real life. That fact can be used to your advantage to sculpt yourself into the person you aspire to be, or it can shape us into monsters - and there have I think been more than enough psychological studies in the last century to cement the fact that the seeds of monsterousness dwell within us all, and typically not far beneath the surface. (or at least within the overwhelming majority of us - enough that the truly righteous are a low single-digit statistical anomaly)

hmmm...

[Charliemopps]

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.