It is said that ‘mind rules the body’, but now your brain
will also be controlling your moves while playing video games.
Scientists
at Emotiv, a US/Australian neuro-engineering firm, have developed a
neuro-headset called Epoc that interprets the interaction of neurons in
the brain, and will enable gamers to interact with the virtual world
using their thoughts and emotions alone.
“It picks up
electrical activity from the brain and sends wireless signals to a
computer. It allows the user to manipulate a game naturally and
intuitively,” said Emotiv’s president, Ms Tan Le.
The brain
constitutes billions of nerve cells, or neurons, that send out an
electrical impulse at the time of interaction. Epoc makes use of a
technology called non-invasive electroencephalography (EEG) for reading
the neural activity.
The
Epoc headset, being displayed, reads electrical impulses in the user’s
brain and translates them into commands that a video game can accept
“We’ve created a brain-computer interface that reads electrical
impulses in the brain and translates them into commands that a video
game can accept and control the game dynamically,” said Le.
Headsets
that read neural activity are not new, but Le said that the Epoc was
the first-of-its-kind consumer device that can be used for gaming.
“This
is the first headset that doesn’t require a large net of electrodes, or
a technician to calibrate or operate it and does require gel on the
scalp. It also doesn’t cost tens of thousands of dollars,” she said.
One
of the prominent features of this headset is that it could be used to
improve the realism of emotional responses of all the characters in
games.
It may also provide authentic facial expressions to
gamers’ avatars in virtual worlds. So it will be possible for the
headset to detect the player’s expressions when he smiles, winks,
grimaces; and translate it to the avatar in game. It can also read his
emotions and translate those to the virtual world.
“The
headset could be used to improve the realism of emotional responses of
AI characters in games. If you laughed or felt happy after killing a
character in a game, then your virtual buddy could admonish you for
being callous,” said Le.
Costing around $299 (Rs 12,000
approx), this headset has a gyroscope for catching the movement and
also makes use of Wi-Fi to communicate with a USB dongle plugged into a
computer.
According to Emotiv, Epoc can detect more than 30
different expressions, emotions and actions. These include excitement,
meditation, tension and frustration; facial expressions such as smile,
laugh, wink, shock (eyebrows raised), anger (eyebrows furrowed); and
even cognitive actions such as push, pull, lift, drop and rotate (on
six different axes).
Epoc will allow gamers to move virtual objects just by thinking of the action..
Emotiv is now working with IBM to develop it for uses in “strategic enterprise
business markets and virtual worlds.”
According
to Paul Ledak, vice president, IBM Digital Convergence, brain computer
interfaces, like the Epoc headset are an important component of the
future 3D Internet and the future of virtual communication.
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