A device that can translate your thoughts into onscreen movements could revolutionise much more than gaming
Think carefully before you answer: is a device that is capable of reading people’s minds fact or fantasy? We knew you’d say that. But scientists at an American laboratory have been brainstorming the same question for more than five years and have come up with a mind-blowingly different answer.
They call it Epoc, but when it is launched early next year in Britain and the US it will probably be known simply as the “mind-reading helmet”, capable, supposedly, of knowing what users are thinking.
The device is being hailed as a revolutionary breakthrough in the way that humans will be able to interact with computers. Its implications are massive, opening the possibility that one day people will be able to control everything from light switches to the cursor on their computer screen simply by thinking about it. However, for now, the technology will be used as the ultimate gimmick: to play computer games simply by thinking your screen character into action.
Emotiv Systems, the San Francisco company that has developed the technology, says Project Epoc could mean the end of joysticks and keyboard bashing. Instead games players will be able to visualise a move in their head and that move will be replicated on the screen in front of them. So, for example, Harry Potter could be ordered to cast exotic spells, or a jedi might exert “the force” to fling his enemies around – all through the willpower of the gamer, with no buttons pressed.
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