Emotiv, a San Francisco-based startup that marries neuroscience and computer engineering, says its EPOC gaming headset offers only a glimpse of what the technology has to offer.<\/p>\n
"There is no natural barrier from what we can see," Emotiv co-founder Tan Le told AFP while demonstrating the headset in the firm’s office.<\/p>\n
"This is the tip of the iceberg for what is possible for us. There will be a convergence of gesture-based technology and the brain as a new interface, the Holy Grail is the mind."<\/p>\n
Gamers will be able to get their hands on the gadget in time for the winter holiday season, the company says.<\/p>\n
The EPOC headset features 16 sensors that press against a user’s scalp to measure electrical activity in a brain using electroencephalography. A built-in gyro tracks head movement.<\/p>\n
The sensors also register users’ moods and facial expressions, merging the data in computer software that "learns" to match readings with what people are thinking, according to Le.<\/p>\n
"There is a direct correlation between thought and what happens on screen," Le said. "It really fulfills this long fantasy people have had of moving objects just with thought."<\/p>\n
A videogame will be included with the headset when the package goes on sale for 299 dollars at the Emotiv website and select shops.<\/p>\n
The martial arts fantasy game has a rural Asian setting. An animated "master" leads players through exercises that include lifting mountains with their minds.<\/p>\n
A test of the headset showed that after "training" the EPOC system for less than a minute one could spin, push, pull and lift objects onscreen, or make them vanish, by simply thinking about it.<\/p>\n
"Gamers are early adopters of technology and thought control is the ultimate fantasy of gamers," Le said.<\/p>\n
Emotiv has a software development kit available to videogame makers as well as programmers of "anything that involves a human and a computer" including those involved in virtual worlds, cars and medical care.<\/p>\n
The technology could be used to let virtual world characters referred to as "avatars" reflect the real-world expressions and moods of the people they represent online, according to Emotiv engineer Marco Della Torre.<\/p>\n
The kit for third-party software savants to weave thought-control into programs has reportedly been downloaded from the Emotiv website more than 1,000 times.<\/p>\n
"We have a lot of Fortune 500 companies interested," Le said.<\/p>\n
Even law enforcement agencies have expressed interest in the headset’s ability to read people’s minds.<\/p>\n
"It certainly could be used as a very accurate polygraph," Le said. "If you have seen something before, there is no hiding it. There is brain recognition."<\/p>\n
Medical applications could include giving stroke victims or people in comas new ways to communicate.<\/p>\n
People wearing headsets while listening to online music could have tunes automatically tagged based on whether they made them happy, sad, excited, or bored.<\/p>\n
Le, an Australian telecommunications entrepreneur named Young Australian of the Year in 1998, said the idea for the headset sprang from a chat about brains and technology during dinner in 2003.<\/p>\n
Le and fellow entrepreneur Nam Do founded Emotiv with neuroscientist Allan Snyder and computer chip designer Neil Weste.<\/p>\n