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A Game You Control With Your Mind (nytimes.com)

A startup recently demoed their prototype for a VR headset using sensors that read brain waves. An anonymous reader quotes the New York Times: There is no joystick or game pad. You must use your thoughts. You turn toward a ball on the floor, and your brain sends a command to pick it up. With another thought, you send the ball crashing into a mirror, breaking the glass and revealing a few numbers scribbled on a wall. You mentally type those numbers into a large keypad by the door. And you are out. Designed by Neurable, a small start-up founded by Ramses Alcaide, an electrical engineer and neuroscientist, the game offers what you might call a computer mouse for the mind, a way of selecting items in a virtual world with your thoughts...

The prototype is among the earliest fruits of a widespread effort to embrace technology that was once science fiction -- and in some ways still is. Driven by recent investments from the United States government and by the herd mentality that so often characterizes the tech world, a number of a start-ups and bigger companies like Facebook are working on ways to mentally control machines... Although sensors can read electrical brain activity from outside the skull, it is very difficult to separate the signal from the noise. Using computer algorithms based on research that Mr. Alcaide originally published as a doctoral student at the University of Michigan, Neurable works to read activity with a speed and accuracy that is not typically possible.

56 comments

  1. MECH WARRIOR by ArylAkamov · · Score: 2

    SOON

    1. Re:MECH WARRIOR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      "in 5 to 10 years"

    2. Re:MECH WARRIOR by narcc · · Score: 1

      Google "EEG computer mouse" or "Star Wars Force Trainer". If you can't stand Google, find anyone with an EE undergrad degree. Chances are, they or one of their former classmates has done something similar.

      Yes, this technology is with us today, and has been with us for ages.

      No, it's not reading your mind. That's just what marketing wants you to believe.

    3. Re:MECH WARRIOR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Aff, give me my nurohelmet!

    4. Re: MECH WARRIOR by dougdonovan · · Score: 1

      its called marriage.

    5. Re:MECH WARRIOR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ha!! So true!! I actually built one that controlled movement through a 3D environment some time around '92 or '93 using EEG schematics from Circuit Cellar magazine.

      https://sensiblemonkey.deviantart.com/art/Discrete-Paranoia-145298798

      It wouldn't surprise me in the least if there weren't other examples that predate it; it was literally the first thing that came into my mind to build once I'd finished the EEG.

    6. Re:MECH WARRIOR by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 1

      No, it's not reading your mind. That's just what marketing wants you to believe.

      It's not reading your mind, and never will be, in same way that AI is never AI. The goalposts simply get moved.

    7. Re:MECH WARRIOR by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      Google "EEG computer mouse" or "Star Wars Force Trainer". If you can't stand Google, find anyone with an EE undergrad degree. Chances are, they or one of their former classmates has done something similar.

      Yes, this technology is with us today, and has been with us for ages.

      No, it's not reading your mind. That's just what marketing wants you to believe.

      All those "control with your mind" things are awful. I wouldn't be suckered into buying one until 1000's of fools before me have tried it and universally given thumbs up.

      I remember my son wanted that Star Wars Force Trainer thing, tried to warn him it would be crap. Still... it was his #1 wish item for xmas, so reluctantly got it for him. It was crap.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    8. Re: MECH WARRIOR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lol.

      Thing X is now Y!
      But it still isnt X!

      You've moved the goalposts! We made it Y, remember?

    9. Re: MECH WARRIOR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'll just leave this here...

      https://m.slashdot.org/story/103391

    10. Re:MECH WARRIOR by kaws · · Score: 1

      It all really depends on the sensors you get. A cheap toy like that would hardly have anything going for it. For a full head sensor, there's a lot more potential. If it's able to accurately match patterns in the brain with certain thoughts and clear out the noise then it could work. It would require fairly expensive sensors and some good algorithms tracking brain activity. Not true mind reading, but in some ways, this is fairly close in that regard. I wouldn't be surprised if it requires some training as well.

  2. I'm pretty sure... by ckatko · · Score: 1

    ....all games you control with your mind.

    1. Re:I'm pretty sure... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      My friend, I would like to introduce you to roulette.

    2. Re:I'm pretty sure... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      True. But now consider a quadraplegic. Hand control is limited or non-existent. VR games via mind control becomes your training ground. Once you've trained the system/yourself replace VR with an exoskeleton. Or just a remote robot for that matter.

      I'm guessing people like Stephen Hawking are paying close attention to this stuff.

    3. Re: I'm pretty sure... by TheOuterLinux · · Score: 1

      sudo [ $[ $RANDOM % 6 ] == 0 ] && rm -rf / || echo "Click.";

    4. Re: I'm pretty sure... by maelkum · · Score: 1
    5. Re: I'm pretty sure... by TheOuterLinux · · Score: 1

      I know

    6. Re: I'm pretty sure... by maelkum · · Score: 1

      Cool. So then it's just for other people, who may not know about Commitstrip.

  3. Oblig. Futurama by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 1

    Kind of like playing Virtual Virtual Skeeball...

  4. two-way street by turkeydance · · Score: 1

    eventually

  5. Thirty three years and counting? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What, is this celebrating the thirty third anniversary of the never-completed Atari Mindlink for Atari 2600?

  6. How about a Life You Control by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    with your mind?

    Imagine the possibilities

    1. Re:How about a Life You Control by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      with your mind?

      Imagine the possibilities

      Won't happen in my lifetime.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  7. Just around the corner by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Mind control video games are just like new battery technologies...just around the corner but never quite make it.

    1. Re:Just around the corner by nomadic · · Score: 1

      They've been on the market for almost a decade, actually...

    2. Re:Just around the corner by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They've been on the market for almost a decade, actually...

      Longer than that actually, I was playing video games with this interface when Comp USA was still around.. This was 1997 so the tech is over 20 years old by now.

    3. Re:Just around the corner by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      They've been on the market for almost a decade, actually...

      Seeing the OP and all the other comments, it seems we've come from another timeline...

      I distinctly remember the OCZ NIA, released in 2008, among a few competitors at the time, being all the hype back then... Apparently no one knows about it in this timeline...

  8. in Soviet Russia by DrYak · · Score: 1

    to introduce you to roulette.

    and in Russian Roulette,
    it's the roulette that controls your brain
    (...'s splatter pattern).

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
    1. Re:in Soviet Russia by CaronSanto · · Score: 1

      this is funny. Russian Roulette can be a game that you can plan only once :-)

      --
      http://fun-gegen-langeweile.com/
  9. Seen this by Hognoxious · · Score: 4, Funny

    Seen this on ST:TNG.

    Didn't turn out well.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    1. Re:Seen this by amanaplanacanalpanam · · Score: 1

      Seems like it turned out ok for Wil.

  10. Obligatory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    1. Re:Obligatory by tepples · · Score: 1

      But in what language must you think for Chrome or Edge?

  11. You would be better off with... by TheOuterLinux · · Score: 1

    A VR headset with built-in Tobii tech for eye movement and blink controls. The second a game gets too intense, it won't work.

  12. How about a game by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I control with my enormous dick.

    1. Re: How about a game by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm afraid two inches doesn't count as enormous

    2. Re:How about a game by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      I control with my enormous dick.

      The only game you control with that is a dead deer you found on the road and loaded into your pickup truck.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  13. Popular fiction seeded these ideas of the future by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    so when the mark of the beast and its dirty family of devices comes for us all, we will already have an entertaining movie, game, etc. to reference it, so for most it will just be the next cool thing. or the best thing since A,B,C.

    Oh, THAT. I saw THAT on BLAH BLAH. Hahaha, those funny (insert religion here) are so crazy to shun THAT. What are you guys, Amish? Ha, Ha, Ha.

    Segments of comedies will be referenced with quotes already planted and the collective will all fall into line with only the few smart people opting out, or in most deluded people's eyes, the few Neanderthals.

  14. The game is called "American Democracy" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And Donald Trump is playing it - and winning - with only half a mind.

  15. Huh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The "Input devices" tag icon is brilliantly appropriate for once.

  16. is this another fantasy diegetic prototype? by sheramil · · Score: 1

    The article mentioned several other groups who are interested in this, but there's no link to Neurable, or any demo of how far they've come with it. We are told Ramses Alcaide has an algorithm. That's nice.

  17. Re: Leave the evil world of Video Games by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But can he 360 noscope?

  18. It will cause more divorces by techdolphin · · Score: 1

    I can see what will happen when your spouse installs it on your cell phone to keep track of your thoughts.

    "I can't wait for the call, "Honey, stop thinking about that woman."

    "I'm on my way to a lunch meeting."

    "But you are not thinking about food for lunch."

    This is a bad idea, probably much worse than AI. We need to stop it now!

  19. In Soviet-Controlled Amerika... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Game controls your MIND, compelling you to make absurd "decisions" like paying real money for in-game "purchases," spending oodles of time to reward the pleasure center of your brain with a random little tickle every now and then, just enough to keep you coming back for more, though never quite enough to sate you...

    Oh, SHIT! It's already happening! NOooooOOoooO!!!

  20. Step 1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Of the inverse being true.

  21. There's got to be a better way! by PKFC · · Score: 1

    "I can move objects with my mind if I use my hands."
    -Demetri Martin

  22. This technology needs lab rats by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What this will do is alter the user's brain activity locations and functions to match the 'interface' of the mindreader. Those interface points in the brain then might have unforeseen consequences and effects to other brain activity. And that is not all. If the mindreader gets positioned slightly differently each time, it will also slightly delocalize the interface areas in the brain. And if the user uses different models of readers, then those too will cause their own interface areas.

    But in any case, this will be highly interesting to follow. Because each interface connects to a different, albeit virtual, reality. Users' brains will get tuned to handle totally separate tangible realities. And because their interfaces are positioned differently in their brains, the users will receive the experience of each reality differently.

    What kind of reality would be possible if the interface were positioned to the user's emotion controlling brain areas? My bet: it would be anime reality.

  23. If this is anywhere near usable... by khchung · · Score: 1

    ... it would be already selling for big-bucks to paralysis patients.

    Just imagine, if you are paralyze neck down, how much would you be willing to pay for a gadget that allows you to have effective control a computer from just your thoughts? That basically means you can now communicate easily with the world, control anything electrical in your house, and possibly even customized mechanical devices such as one that can give you water without having to ask someone for help? Not to mention the possibility of exo-skeleton that can let one move around.

    If anyone can make such a thing, they just need to take a prototype and take a tour around rich, paralyzed patients, and they would have no lack of funding. That people are thinking about making games showed you just how useless these things are.

    --
    Oliver.
  24. Think? by nospam007 · · Score: 1

    Bad idea. Our youth has the attention span of a gnat. If any concentration/focus is required, they'll fail at this.

    1. Re:Think? by Herve5 · · Score: 1

      I don't know if our youth is different than what we were when the youth were us :-)
      But I very clearly remember being 18 and my high-school-prep math teacher telling us that we definitely were gnats because, contrary to her, we weren't trained into learning full Greek theater acts, which would definitely have helped (according to her) for remembering theorem demonstrations. Indeed.
      And, well, I remembered 10-pages demonstrations without Greek...

      --
      Herve S.
  25. Depok CHapra Did It. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    For the PC:
    "The Wild Divine" is a really cool bio-feedback game. Sure this new VR version is somewhat of a step-up, but hey you gotta appreciate The WIld Divine.
    It's really fun, not just a novelty!

    read up here:
    http://www.shokos.com/The_Journey_to_Wild_Divine.html
    or
    https://www.amazon.com/Wild-Divine-Biofeedback-Software-Hardware/dp/B00099YLPM

  26. Not quite new... by cant_get_a_good_nick · · Score: 1

    I mean, they had something like this on 8 bit computers in the 80s. Much simpler interface, much less refined, much less capabilities. But this is a massive refinement, not something groundbreaking.

  27. But One Day... by sycodon · · Score: 1

    ...this will be reality and that will create another issue.

    How would you know that what is appearing on the keyboard is actually what that person is thinking? Not speaking of just fucked up software getting it wrong, but of the "feed" being hijacked.

    So you have a witness at a trial testifying through a future device like this, but the interface is hacked and the witness, who can't otherwise communicate, is saying things he doesn't want to say.

    I detect a good move plot twist here.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
  28. mod parent 'significant'... by Herve5 · · Score: 1

    Indeed I know people in the field of disabled people that'd give gold for this kind of stuff...
    That the authors didn't talk about this market is a clear lack of maturity.

    --
    Herve S.