READING THE TELLS

22 February 2008

This computer gaming headset enables your feelings to be reflected by your avatar...


According to Times Online Technology, a new computer gaming headset could revolutionise online gaming, and has the ability to read the player's mental impulses and transfer these to reflect on an avatar.

The 'mind reading' Epoc headset will sell for $299 and can read facial expressions and simple thoughts through electrical impulses in the brain, generating commands such as 'lift' or 'drop' to control in-game actions, and transfer these to a character (avatar) in the game. For instance if a player winks, smiles or grimaces while wearing the device, similar expressions would be seen on the person's avatar in the game.

Basic emotions, such as happiness, can also be detected, the company which makes the headset said. Anyone for online poker?

A headset which can read electrical impulses in the brain and allow gamers to interact with virtual worlds merely by 'thinking and feeling' is likely to generate a lucrative market and will go on sale later this year.

Developed by the San Fransisco-based firm Emotiv, the headset relies on a technology known as non-invasive electroencephalography (EEG), which reads neural activity within the brain.

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