Control games with your brain? - here comes Brainball!

[Sindre]

http://www.itavisen.no/showArticle.php?articleId=1307306

Press the button "Snurr Film" to watch a video.

The article is in norwegian, so I translated the most interestong parts. Excuse me for eventual spelling errors.

"Brainball is just one of many projects you can see, try and reflect upon at the â€￾Touching the Invisible exhibition which runs at the Norwegian Design and Architecture Center in Oslo till October the 30th.

The exhibition is made by the Swedish research grou Interactive Designs, and contains interactive “installationsâ€￾ that «challenges our prejudiced experience of movement and non-movement, of thoughts and actions and time and space».

A test in inactivity
One of these is Brainball, a game where two people tries to push a ball over to the opponents “goalâ€￾ by using concentration alone. The one who can think about as little as possible, and as a result sending more of the right type of brainwaves, alpha and theta, than the opponent, wins.

- It’s quite special. You end up with a crowd of people who is just watching, with great interest, at two people compete in doing as little as possible, says Magnus Jonsson fra Interactive Designs."


Sindre

 

[BlueTsunami]

I am Morpheus

Wow. No one has answered this thread yet? I guess i'll be the first.

This sounds VERY interesting. Even harnessing certain brain waves (in its simplist form) and have it effect an actual object, which in turn is turned into a game could be a prelude to games in the future where brain waves are used to determine actions taken onscreen. At this certain time its a little to random to use this form of control BUT a few years from now, with more sensitive hardware that fine tuned, you can possibly see Nintendo releasing a console that supports a peripheral that uses thoughts mapped to certain buttons!

Heh, seems insane but who knows? Can't wait to see real world application for these things.

Unless this has been bunked? Then I feel like a jackass right now . I just watched the video and the ball moves kinda weird. I wonder if this has been proven to be real? If it is, then thats a pretty cool game and can possibly be way to improve concentration. I remember a PC game that used our heartrate and brainwaves to determain results. This is a very interesting form of game that I would love to try out.

 

[gkar1]

Im afraid this is not something new. Medical applications of mentally controlled devices already exist to help handicapped patients communicate. There's even a pointing mouse-like device that uses brainwaves as input.
It is very interesting regardless.

 

[BlueTsunami]

Im afraid this is not something new. Medical applications of mentally controlled devices already exist to help handicapped patients communicate. There's even a pointing mouse-like device that uses brainwaves as input.
It is very interesting regardless.

Yeah, I remember seeing the mouse pointer one on the news a while back. This is the first time i've seen something motorized or mechanical being used in this way. Although, I think you can consider the one scenario where this guy lost his arm and the prosthetic being used was moved by thinking about moving his arm. Very basic motor functions, but amazing none the less.

 

[gkar1]

What would be more interesting (and more challenging to implement as well) is a combination of the revolution controller and a refined device of this kind working in conjunction as inputs for a gaming console/device. That I would pay good money for, because the possibilities would increase exponentially.

 

[mckmas8808]

What would be more interesting (and more challenging to implement as well) is a combination of the revolution controller and a refined device of this kind working in conjunction as inputs for a gaming console/device. That I would pay good money for, because the possibilities would increase exponentially.

If Nintendo done that I would be the first to buy 3 consoles.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

The article is misleading. I saw a TV program last week at the what-ever-it-was electronics expo that had this. It's based on relaxation and the person who relaxes the most wins. Basically it measures brain activity, not targetted thoughts. The more you stress, the more you lose, while the opposite, keeping still and quiet, you win.

It's no more brain control then those stupid cameras that appeared in the 90s claiming to take a photo of your 'aura' but instead just use your body heat to generate a thermal image.

Seems the media have misrepresented this product (either the TV program or this article, but as the TV program had the presenter using the machine and winning and explaining how I put my faith in that more). Seems to me often news stories exaggerated technology a fair bit. Things like 3D mid-air projections I was hearing about being actually a projection onto a screen of fine mist. I'm very wary these days of news clippings claiming amazing new technologies.

 

[Sindre]

Wow. No one has answered this thread yet? I guess i'll be the first.

This sounds VERY interesting. Even harnessing certain brain waves (in its simplist form) and have it effect an actual object, which in turn is turned into a game could be a prelude to games in the future where brain waves are used to determine actions taken onscreen. At this certain time its a little to random to use this form of control BUT a few years from now, with more sensitive hardware that fine tuned, you can possibly see Nintendo releasing a console that supports a peripheral that uses thoughts mapped to certain buttons!

Heh, seems insane but who knows? Can't wait to see real world application for these things.

Unless this has been bunked? Then I feel like a jackass right now . I just watched the video and the ball moves kinda weird. I wonder if this has been proven to be real? If it is, then thats a pretty cool game and can possibly be way to improve concentration. I remember a PC game that used our heartrate and brainwaves to determain results. This is a very interesting form of game that I would love to try out.

I agree. It will be interesting to see what we will be able to do in say 5, 6 years. By the way, I might personally try out Brainball the next week or the on after that as I am studying in Oslo. I'll report my impressions back here if I do so!