02.20.08
Level up w/your brain
I was just forwarded this news article about a headset that can read the player’s brain activity and translate it into commands for a game:
Brain control headset for gamers
Immediately a score of game ideas swam into my mind, and telekinesis was just the most obvious of them. How about a fantasy game where the power of your spells is influenced by how much brain activity you’re experiencing? Or where your spells might fail if you get too excited? A game where you get a time-limited berzerk if you get very agitated or an adrenaline bonus if you get excited during combat. Your aim with the sniper rifle steadying if you meditate a little. Your nemesis taunting you with how shocked you are to see him again after you thought he was dead!
Imagine a horror game where your fear or anger empowers the monsters. If you give the player a wise-cracking companion who can make him or her smile in the middle of a really scary situation, that’ll actually drive the monsters away for a bit or make them weaker. Conversely, if you want to make things worse for the player, let something bad happen to that companion, making the player angry and shocked and in turn making the monsters more vicious and powerful. Thinking happy thoughts will litterally make everything better.
Imagine a puzzle game where you have to conjure up specific emotions to cause specific effects, solving puzzles that way. Imagine in Star Wars if Yoda or Darth Vader can “sense much anger in you…” or in Mass Effect if you had to actually relax to let Liara into your mind. If you’re broadcasting your emotions, telepathic characters can predict your movements, dodging them. If you’re good at calming your mind, they’d lose that advantage. Monsters who find their prey by reading your thoughts could be rendered blind if you can control your feelings.
Implementing the headset in a dialogue system could produce fantastic results:
“You seem tense, is something bothering you?”
“Hey look at you, what are you so happy about?”
“Don’t be angry with me, I didn’t do it on purpose!”
A studio like Valve would be able to let you interact with characters through what you are feeling without having to put a more independent avatar between you and the world. I don’t know how sensitive the technology is in reality of course, but imagine if Alyx could tell what you think about a plan simply by “the look on your face” (determined by the readings of the headset of course).
And that’s just what I can come up with in half an hour. The possibilities are pretty much endless if the technology is accurate enough. I hope this headset gains good support so its price will drop and its feature set will continue to be developed. I really want to make some games for that thing!
fox said,
February 20, 2008 at 21:31
You know Winamp’s Visualizer? Now imagine it getting controlled with this headset under the influence of some serious drugs…say…LSD. Or imagine a synthesizer getting controlled by it.
Jonas said,
February 20, 2008 at 21:40
But that’s not games! So why would I want to imagine that!?
fox said,
February 20, 2008 at 22:41
Maybe because you don’t want to snub me?! Or is it because you feel guilty about SMIKE?
Jonas said,
February 20, 2008 at 22:58
Why would I feel guilty about Smike, it’s not like I’ve locked him up in my basement and forced him to write scripts for future OTP projects!?
Shacker said,
February 21, 2008 at 12:23
Yes… but where did he go?
Also I have to say that 95% of the time my emotional state is far more influenced by external factors than it is by games, I keep my character in mind trying to role play a little but I think mostly my zombies would be like “oh shit, he’s taking his antidepressants, run!”
I’m much more interested in the more conventional usage of this as an input device. I’m more inclined to imagine being able to freely look around, moving your head and your weapon independently with no more effort than you would normally take to move around, stuff like that.
Jonas said,
February 21, 2008 at 13:48
Hmm when that becomes possible, it WILL be pretty cool. I still think it’s probably best to use a light gun or something like that to aim your weapon, so you have something in your hands. At least as long as you’re looking at a screen - once they can beam the picture right into your brain, we can start talking about controlling your movement and your actions entirely with your mind.
Letting you look around just by thinking about it would be pretty cool, though I wonder if it’s hard to do without actually moving your head. Of course, I frequently catch myself leaning in front of my monitor when trying to look around a corner in a stealth game, I guess it’s not that different
Daniel said,
February 23, 2008 at 18:02
The headset sounds pretty cool in theory but its actual applications are pretty limited and its GDC demonstration was awful (this was blamed on AV wireless signal interference so we’ll have to wait for further demos).
The device can detect 30 patterns including some cognative (push, pull, rotate, etc) and emotional, but facial expressions are included there too. Still, it could really add to The Force Unleash if you can just think about throwing someone through a wall. Its also supposed to make online games more intimate my mimicking your own facial expressions… though not sure how much of a good thing that would be. :s
There is still however the price tag which IIRC is $250 (I’m expecting £200 here). This is unlikely to get mass market appeal, but seeing as I seem to collect these sorts of things (I have a P5 a two sets of shutter specs) I expect I’ll end up buying one.
Daniel said,
February 23, 2008 at 18:03
Oh just quickly wanted to add, game support isn’t necessary as it can map thoughts to key presses.
Jonas said,
February 23, 2008 at 21:08
What’s a P5?
I can’t help but think about how much I will mess up if I have to control a game with my thoughts. I just know I’ll end up blowing an NPC up one day when I mean to say hello.