Brain game

Australian researchers have developed a brain driven computer game that doesn’t require hands to perform actions. The unit includes a sensor-studded helmet, which allows the wearer to perform actions like opening doors and picking up objects using only the brain.

Unveiled at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco recently, technology company Emotiv’s "brain computer interface" apparently also allows users a new generation gaming experience.

The interface helmet, as co-inventors Tan Le and her partner Nam Do say also picks up facial expressions and emotions of users and displays them on screen. The gaming system is one of a range of brain-operated devices and will become available this year, including computers and wheelchairs, they said. "The next major wave of technology innovation will change the way humans interact with computers," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Do as saying.

"We are incorporating computer-based activities not only into the way we work, learn and communicate, but also into the way we relax, socialise and entertain ourselves. The next step is to enhance these experiences by making the way we interact with computers more lifelike," Do said.

He said the system worked by detecting electrical activity generated by brain cells, known as neurons, using a process known as electroencephalography. Similar technology is used in hospitals to detect epilepsy and sleep disorders in patients.

The company’s interface captures and wirelessly transmits information about brain activity to a processor, allowing interaction with video games. The more a person uses the technology, the more adept the system becomes at recognising the person’s intentions and emotions, he said. — ANI

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