No matter how hard you try, your mind can’t bend a spoon or channel the powers of a Jedi knight. Thanks to a new headset under development by neuroengineering company Emotiv Systems, however, you may soon be able to do this and more via the magic of video games.

By the end of this year, San Francisco–based Emotiv’s sensor-laden EPOC headset will enable gamers to use their own brain activity to interact with the virtual worlds where they play. The $299 headset’s 14 strategically placed head sensors are at the ends of what look like stretched, plastic fingers that detect patterns produced by the brain’s electrical activity. These neural signals are then narrowed down and interpreted in 30 possible ways as real-time intentions, emotions or facial expressions that are reflected in virtual world characters and actions in a way that a joystick or other type of controller could not hope to match.

The EPOC detects brain activity noninvasively using electroencephalography (EEG), a measure of brain waves, via external sensors along the scalp that pick up the electrical bustle in various parts of the furrowed surface of the brain’s cortex, a region that handles higher order thoughts. Added to the challenge of attaining clear signals was making sense of them. “The human cortex is unique like a fingerprint,” says Emotiv president Tan Le. “Even though a signal may emanate from [the same region] deep inside the brain, by the time it gets [projected] to the cortex and the surface of the scalp, the signal appears very random. We had to come up with a mathematical algorithm to unfold the cortex and match the signal to its source.”

Emotiv solved this brain–computer interface problem with the help of a multidisciplinary team that included neuroscientists, who understood the brain at a systems level (rather than individual cells), and computer engineers with a knack for machine learning and pattern recognition. Over the last four years, the company has conducted thousands of EEG recordings on hundreds of volunteers—not all gamers—as they experienced virtual scenarios that elicited various emotions, facial expressions and cognitive demands. The aim was to find a revealing brain activity that many people shared—a needle in a haystack of frenzied signals. Now, the EPOC allows users to fine-tune settings that allow it to pick up on even the subtlest of smirks.

When building these algorithms commenced two years ago, it had taken up to 72 hours for a bank of powerful computers to run through a mere 10 seconds of individual brain data and extract important features. Sorting through a seemingly endless stream of recordings eventually led Emotiv to find consistent signal patterns that revealed specific mental experiences. “Through a large enough sample size,” Le says, “we were able to get some consistency around the population to attain a high degree of confidence that it accurately measures an emotional state.”

Homing in on these revealing brain waves allows the EPOC system to quickly deduce a player’s emotional qualities and react to it by, for example, changing the music of a game in real-time to match the user’s tension or throw in more villains in case a player seemed to get bored of a certain world.

Streamlining the neuro-headset, which Le describes as a “high-fidelity EEG-acquisition device,” was another obstacle that involved “loads” of sensors collecting as much data as possible to pinpoint informative spots around the skull where brain activity best revealed a person’s thoughts and emotions. “The challenge has been to optimize the number of sensors to get resolution that is needed to allow robust and accurate detection but at the same time not have a ’swim cap’ that is hot and uncomfortable,” she adds.

An EEG device that consists of only 14 sensors and can simply be placed snuggly on the head, without signals becoming significantly dampened and muddled, is also novel. Clinicians and researchers often go through great pains to maximize EEG signals by abrading the top layer of skin and applying a conductive gel where the scalp is in contact with the sensors—something not even the passionate gamer would endure. “They must have developed amplifiers that can amplify the signal better,” says Ethan Buch, a brain–computer interface researcher at the National Institute of Mental Health, who uses an EEG recorder with 64 sensors. Buch also suspects that the facial expressions that the EPOC detects are based more on the electrical activity of facial and scalp muscles than the brain per se. Although the electrical activity of muscles, he explained, is normally considered as artifact noise that needs to be filtered out to attain clean EEG signals that are of interest, they are still informative about how facial muscles move, such as during a wink. Tan agrees, saying that in their classification strategy some of the EPOC’s detections are based on muscle movements.

At this stage in development and patenting, Emotiv still has to be secretive about the advances that made the EPOC possible. So far, Emotiv’s intentions are not to replace gaming hand controllers but rather to complement them by including with the headset software, the EmoKey, which associates a game’s unique keystroke command patterns with brain activity. Emotiv also offers a development kit for other game developers, such as Nintendo, to potentially integrate the brain–computer interface technology into their products.

Yet the EPOC’s expressive qualities will most likely be a hit in games that create hyper-realistic alternative realities, such as in virtual worlds like Linden Lab’s Second Life, where social encounters play a big part of the experience. Rather than tap out a “wink” or “frown” command on a keyboard, players will be able to rely on their natural facial expressions to intuitively reveal how they feel to other inhabitants.

Le is not counting out the idea that the EPOC may be developed further to one day allow players to mentally articulate fighting moves that still require the speed of their fingers. But for now, the device is meant more for enhancing the human and interactive component of gaming and virtual world habitation. After all, this is as close as we’re going to get to emulating Luke Skywalker’s ability to pluck his X-wing from the swamps of the planet Dagobah.

Never in a million years did I think that at age 32 I would be playing video games with my 50 year old dad. It was a blast! Everyone joined in! All in all the age range playing was from 7 to 50. The whole room was familiar with just about every song on the game and we all took turns on different instruments. My favorite song in terms of fun factor was a well done cover of “Tom Sawyer” as made famous by Rush. We played together for at least 4 hours and probably would have gone longer but it was getting late.

Playing Rock Band alone probably wouldn’t be half as fun alone, but it’s great with a group of friends and family.

Arnie

Arnie

Arnie

The campaign continues with the adventures of “The Master Chief” John 117. The Arbiter,
Cmndr Keys, Sgt Johnson, Cortana & Lord Hood all return to play pivotal roles in Earth’s struggle
for survival against insurmountable odds. With the covenant, led by the maniacal Prophet of Truth
invading earth and the looming threat of the Flood, It’s time to finish the fight. The Halo series
story arc is absolutely the best I have ever experienced in a game series. Even better than most
movies & TV shows.

The controls are familar and easy. Halo 3 is graphically stunning, with lighting and water effects
the best I’ve seen to date. Sound and voice acting follow suit and are top notch. With such notable
talent as Ron Pearlman as Lord Hood and Keith David voicing The Arbiter. Another home run for bungie.

Where Halo 3 really shines is the multiplayer. Several gametypes including co-op campaign, slayer,
Capture the flag and much more provide endless hours of white knuckled fun. The ranking system on
Xbox live really helps to match you with other players of comparable skill. Anyone who’s played
games online knows what it’s like to be utterly squashed by someone far more experienced than you,
or vice verca. The ranking system really helps to minimize this.

All in all, I definitely recommend Halo 3.

Arnie

There’s also games available from the 90’s such as Street Fighter II, Smash TV and Ultimate
Mortal Kombat 3. They even threw in some original Xbox titles such as Halo & Fable. All for
your downloading pleasure. With demos available for free you can try out the games before
you buy them. Not only do they offer classic game demos, but also for new games just hitting
stores. As anyone who’s ever owned a game system can tell you, some games may have great cover
art and advertising only to be a real stinker. It’s always best to try before you buy.

Not only are games and demos available through Xbox live. There’s extra content for games,
like multiplayer map packs and character skins as well. That’s just the tip of the iceberg.
There’s also PPV movies, TV shows and music videos available. Microsoft really hit a home
run with Xbox Live!

’til next time
Arnie

Now I know that he is not my child and it’s not my decision to make.
I’m ok with with this but I just don’t understand. After all I grew
up on Ozzy Osbourne and zombie movies. I can’t say that hard rock or
gore had any adverse effects on me or anyone else that I know. I’ve
even managed to make a career out of the latter.

Katie is a good mother and David is a great kid and I don’t see
anything changing that. Good parenting is hard to corrupt.
Music, movies and video games are all just entertainment. People
are responsible for their own actions. To blame a piece of fiction for
anyone’s misbehavior is absurd.

Arnie

Out of the box it was easy enough to set up. It came with all the nessessary
cables for component and HD. Also in the box was 1 wireless controller, headset,
2 games and a 1 month subscription to Xbox live gold. Not too bad for $400. The
controller felt just like it’s predisessor for the original Xbox with a few minor
changes. The old black & white buttons have been replaced with bumpers just above
the triggers. There’s also a new button, the big “X” in the middle is now a button
used to access the Xbox dashboard.

The dashboard is very easy to navigate and pretty self explanitory. There are
a multitude of features on the dashboard. Enough to keep you exploring and entertained
for quite a while. You can even hook up the Xbox 360 to your windows media center pc for
all kinds of extra goodies.

Well, I’m off to do some gaming. I’ll be back soon with game reviews and more fun stuff.

Arnie