Mind control video games becoming reality!
SAN JOSE, Kalifornia - May 30, 2012 - Picture this: You put on a headset and relax your mind. Soon you begin controlling an object with your thoughts.
This mind-power trick may seem far-fetched, like something from a late-night science fiction movie or the back of an old comic book. But several companies are bringing this technology to life with affordable headsets that determine a person’s state of mind.
The gadgets translate brain waves into digital information and beam it wirelessly to computers or other devices.
Behind much of the technology is San Jose-based NeuroSky, Inc., which used its headset for the Star Wars Force Trainer toy that let youngsters suspend a ball inside a tube. As the child concentrated, a fan would spin and blow the ping-pong ball upward.
The novelty toy was more than a “gee-whiz” moment. It was the first time consumers could see brain waves translated into specific commands in the physical world; and it didn’t make use of skull implants, which for years have enabled patients to control prosthetic limbs and wheelchairs.
Now, about 1,700 software developers are working with NeuroSky’s technology, with the majority of them making mind-controlled computer games for the company’s $129 MindWave Mobile headset, said NeuroSky Chief Executive Stanley Yang.
London-based MyndPlay, Ltd. is using NeuroSky chips inside its own headset to enable viewers to control the outcome of movie scenes by concentrating and relaxing. The company has a production studio that makes short films with alternate plot lines and endings.
In addition to being a novel twist on the movie going experience, the technology has implications in behavior modification, according to Chief Executive Tre Azam. For example, two prisons in England show inmates a gangster-themed film from MyndPlay that teaches them to stay calm during threatening situations.
Implications of the applications of this technology are staggering. Will it be used for good or evil? Will it help people or be used as a first step toward total mind control? Only time will tell.
