Pong 3.0: Mindball
By Joshua Fruhlinger 
posted Oct 21st 2004 12:40PM
posted Oct 21st 2004 12:40PM
Mindball is a tabletop game that rewards you for being
relaxed. Players put on headbands that track Alpha- and Theta waves, you know, the kind that occur during deep
chillitude. The EEG readings correspond to the ball's movement, and the most-relaxed player will make the ball move to
the other player's goal. The game is available from Interactive Productline for a slim $20,000. Um, after spending
$20,000 on pong with a brain strap, how does one relax? Ever? Obviously by playing their
Pongmechanik (that would be Pong 2.0, by the way),
duh.
[Via BoingBoing]
I played a prototype of this in Stockholm four years ago. It was kind of amusing but I wouldn't waste 20.000 on it.
You know what they say: if one player misses the ball, the other is scoring.
A colleague of mine also tried this out in Stockholm. He wrote about the experience in the June issue of Fast Company -- http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/83/seriousgaming.html
The trick is Romulan ale. A couple of glasses and the next thing you know, your balls are all over the table.
www.mindball.it
To the Press Department
PRESS RELEASE : Inventor writes a letter to the President of the Italian Republic, H. E. Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
" I WILL JUSTICE, IT IS I THE INVENTOR OF MINDBALL !
Press Men,
I will to communicate that the Mindball, presented in to the Festival of Science, that will be held in Genova (october - november 2004) is a my and prof. Ugo Licinio's invention.
The patent has been registered at the C.C.I.A.A. of Trieste on 30/08/1984, n. reg. 9/82809, as:
"Sistema elettronico predisposto a sostituire nei giochi elettronici i comandi manuali esistenti
con equivalenti comandi direttamente dal cervello" (Electronic system of cerebral controls that takes the place of the manual controls in to the electronic plays).
We are stolen, by fraud, of this invention by a person, later dead in mysterious circumstances in South America, and president of a company in Milan, the CIPA S.p.A.
If You are interested to know more informations and case's documentation,
Best Regards, Vinicio de Bortoli
www.mindball.it