Gaming — 20 February 2008

Epoc Emotiv Virtual Headset
Screw video game controllers, it’s all about mind control. No, not the Jedi type, but pretty darn close. A neuro-headset, called the Epoc, straps on with simplicity, detects electrical activity from the brain and sends it to the video game console. Neural-headsets aren’t new, but this is the first device that doesn’t require a crack team of scientists to strap it on and calibrate for each use. Emotiv envisions use in virtual world games where a player’s facial expressions can be translated to the battlefield. No longer will their be a need for ‘;)’ or ‘=)”, it’ll just show up on the character’s face. The expected cost is $299 and will include a gyroscope to detect head movement along with up to 30 different expressions, emotions or actions (think smile, wink, nod, eyebrow raised, etc). According to the BBC, Emotiv is working with IBM to develop the technology for use with “strategic enterprise business markets and virtual worlds”.

[Props to Chintan for the story]

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Grew up back East, got sick of the cold and headed West. Since I was small I have been pushing buttons - both electronic and human. With an insatiable need for tech I thought "why not start a blog focusing on technology, and use my dislikes and likes to post on gadgets."

  • victoria

    i think its worth a lot more, i would love to have one

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  • Robert Baptiste

    Does this work with the xbox360? Will you be able to update this headset to future video game technology

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  • http://deepcomputedbciashortstory.blogspot.com/ gary maloney

    Deep Computed BCI: A Short Story
    Imagine your motor cortex fully activated while you have full muscle tone but both what your cortex says you are experiencing and what you are actually experiencing are not what you body is actually doing. You were trained to do this on a brain computer interface. Highly Skilled lucid dreamers in intense sessions and brain tomography on the level of seismic tomography make this all possible. Accessing the brain thru non-invasive means is vital in Berlin where Brain Computer Interfacers and the Locked-in are moving things with only their minds; however, one might say that all this research is treading water awaiting advances in Neuro-surgery. I’m pitching the thoroughly developed non-invasive technique as a necessary prelude to the invasive interface. I’m just looking for sympathetic places to post the story I’m telling in the form of a fictitious photo journal.

  • TGN

    OK, for those of us familiar with Shadowrun (or the movie Strange Days), this is an exciting (and a bit scary) piece of new tech.

    Full simsense immersion can’t be that far off.

  • Jim

    where can we buy it