By David Ho
Want to blast that alien or lift that virtual boulder? Think hard.
Systems with motion-controlled gaming, such as the Nintendo Wii, are all the rage but new technology heading for consumers this year goes further, sensing facial expressions, emotions and even thoughts.
Focus your mind to cast a magic spell. Smile or wink and your on-screen avatar does the same. Get mellow and background music matches your mood.
These are some of the possibilities promised by Emotiv Systems - a company founded by four Australian scientists in 2003 - that plans to sell its wireless "neuroheadset" late this year.
The $300 device for PCs uses 16 sensors that press lightly against the scalp to monitor electrical activity from the brain and face. A built-in gyroscope tracks head movements to control a cursor or viewing angles.
The brain-sensing technology - electroencephalography or EEG - has been around for decades, mainly as a medical and research tool. Feedback based on EEG has been used by athletes to improve concentration and as therapy for people with attention deficit disorder.
Until recently, it has been too expensive or cumbersome for broad consumer use, says Steve Prentice, a vice-president at technology research firm Gartner. He says wearing the equipment with its wires and electrodes made you look "a bit like a laboratory rat. What Emotiv appears to have done is bring that laboratory environment out into the real world."
Prentice says brain-computer interface technology has many applications but Emotiv is smart to start with the video game market.
"In gaming, people are looking for any additional sort of edge or cool technological advantage," he says. "It's a short move from gaming to things such as virtual worlds and from there into the mainstream computing environment."
Emotiv has already piqued the interest of IBM, which is testing how the headset, called EPOC, may work with virtual environments.
"As interactions in the virtual world are becoming more complex, mouse and keyboard alone could soon not be enough," says IBM spokesman Steven Tomasco. He says IBM has no business partnership with Emotiv but sees the headset as "a very exciting development in human-machine interface".
Others also see the potential of mind over mouse.
OCZ Technology Group began offering its Neural Impulse Actuator for gamers this year. The device, selling for about $160, is a headband with three sensors that rest on the forehead, detecting electrical signals from movements such as a furrowed brow or a blinking eye to control on-screen action in PC games.
NeuroSky makes "bio-sensors" for consumer products, including toys, and earlier this year demonstrated a prototype headset with gaming applications that detects brain waves and tracks head and eye movement.
These interfaces are among many new technologies seeking to enhance or displace the conventional mouse, keyboard and joystick.
Vibration feedback and motion sensing are increasingly common in mobile devices and, led by the Nintendo Wii, in game systems.
"Nintendo has opened up the doors for other gaming leaders to create innovative gaming interfaces," says Tan Le, Emotiv's president. "Being able to control a computer with your mind is the ultimate quest of human-machine interaction." She says Emotiv spent years mapping the firing of the brain's neurons and linking this electrical activity to "conscious and non-conscious actions, thoughts and emotions".
Emotiv's headset can detect more than 30 expressions, emotions and mental "actions". They include feelings, such as excitement and frustration, expressions, such as raised eyebrows and clenched teeth and thoughts about movement, such as pushing, pulling, lifting and dropping. Visualisation techniques also can make in-game objects vanish.
Emotiv, whose headquarters is in San Francisco, has a mostly Australian leadership team, with research facilities in Sydney.
The EPOC headset, which is only compatible with Windows PCs, will ship with a game created by Emotiv and Demiurge Studios to help users adapt to the new interface.
The untitled game has a mystical theme and is filled with mountains, bridges and temples. Players learn to use concentration, feelings and expressions to navigate the world and perform actions such as lifting boulders, bending trees and throwing things.
Emotiv will include EmoKey software that allows the headset to control actions in other PC games and applications. For example, a mental shove could fire a virtual weapon and a real smile could trigger an instant messaging smiley icon. The company says it would like the headset to be compatible with other operating systems and game consoles but has not announced any plans.
Le says the headset should work on the "vast majority of people's brains" and new users can learn to use it quickly. She says the headset has worked on every one of the hundreds of people tested.
Emotive also is creating Emortal, a web portal where headset users will be able to navigate a virtual cityscape, download applications and games, connect with other users and upload media content.
Le says portal users can hear music automatically based on their mood or "flip through a virtual photo album using thoughts rather than mouse clicks".
Beyond gaming, the Emotiv headset may have applications in interactive television, medicine, aerospace and security. Le says Emotiv's software kit for developers has been downloaded more than 2000 times and the company has 1000 pre-launch orders for headsets.
Emotiv; http://www.emotiv.com
OCZ Technology: http://www.ocztechnology.com
NeuroSky: www.neurosky.com
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