By David Ponce
Yeah, so we’re going to report on this news with a grain of skepticism. Project Epoc from company Emotiv is a cool looking controller that straps to your head, much like a helmet, and claims to give you the ability to control games with the power of your mind.
Project Epoc is a headset that uses a set of sensors to tune into electric signals naturally produced by the brain to detect player thoughts, feelings and expression. It connects wirelessly with all game platforms from consoles to PCs. Project Epoc now makes it possible for games to be controlled and influenced by the player’s mind.
Now, before you go dreaming of playing Wii Sports while laying flat on your sofa (just the way you’ve always wanted to play it), chew on this. We remember a few years ago, much was made of some simple game where two people tried to move a ball towards each other by trying to be “more relaxed” than the other. This alone was considered an achievement in brain/real world interaction. It was called Brainball (great name), by the way. Well, what are the chances that in the intervening years, the technology has improved so much that this helmet is now able to pick up on complex and rapid series of button presses and combinations such that are required in today’s modern games? Wouldn’t it make more sense to believe that the helmet does allow you to control games… but only certain games that have been specifically written to take advantage of its inevitably limited application?
Yeah, it’s cool, but not quite as amazing as you’d initially want to believe. Then again, we could be totally wrong on this one. Or, maybe game developers will start writing games that can take advantage of this technology. Whatever the case, the Project Epoc is not going to be commercialized just yet, though it will be on display at the upcoming Game Developers Conference.
[ Product Page ] VIA [ UberGizmo ]
