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A thousand moviegoers will get their minds monitored all at once
It's an "action film for the mind". That's the pitch. To promote new sci-fi movie MindGamers, someone thought it would be a good idea to strap a thousand audience members into "cognitive bands". Tying into the movie's debut, the bands will let researchers monitor and record the state of the audience's mind simultaneously during the feature, resulting in a "mass-mind state" image of everyone's feelings and brain activity. Details are thin on exactly what's being monitored, although the screening is bookended by introductory talks and Q and As from experts in neuroscience technology. That may help to distract from having to wear a headband throughout the entire feature.
Brain testing app will help diagnose mental health issues
Savonix is a company that claims to take the "analog processes" of cognitive assessment into the digital age. The firm is launching an iOS and Android app that, for the next six weeks, will let anyone examine their own mental ability. Users will have to undergo a series of tests that test the limits of their ability, from smart thinking through to emotional control. Whereas previously these tests would have been worked out on pen-and-paper under the supervision of a stern looking psychologist, now it's open to anyone. After the open beta closes and all of the kinks have been worked out, the app will become exclusively available to users who license the app through "healthcare organizations."
Indie Royale's Joystiq reader-named 'With Cheese' bundle out now
Indie Royale has launched the "Royale with Cheese" bundle, a beat-the-minimum PC game compilation named by contest-winning Joystiq reader bourbumchickum. The DRM-free package includes indie PC standouts Continue?9876543210, Cognition Episode 3: The Oracle, Yelaxot, Rogue's Tale and Too Many Me. Three featured games include Steam keys, and all included titles are redeemable at Desura. The release of the "Royale with Cheese" bundle coincides with the 20th anniversary of the first Cannes showing of Pulp Fiction, the film that inspired our contest's winning entry. The "Royale with Cheese" bundle is currently available for a minimum purchase price of $4.46. [Image: Indie Royale]
Indie Royale Choices 2013 bundle includes A Valley Without Wind, Cognition
Indie Royale's latest pay-the-minimum priced bundle is available now until January 15. Currently sitting at $3.79 and slowly rising in price, the Choices 2013 bundle features eight games in total, including Arcen Games' side-scrolling action/adventure game A Valley Without Wind and its sequel. The bundle also includes the first two episodes of Cognition, Phoenix Online Studios' point-and-click adventure series. The other four games in the Choices 2013 bundle are as follows: Dungeon Hearts by Technobabel, Pid by Might and Delight, Owl Cave's Richard and Alice and Waveform by Eden Industries. Every game is available on both PC and Mac via Steam and Desura save for Richard and Alice, which is limited to Windows users through Desura, though the game is currently vying for Steam distribution if it earns community approval on Greenlight. Those that pay at least $6 for the bundle will also receive the "Slipstream Vol. 1" chiptune album by Cold Storage.
Final Cognition episode hits September 19, series coming to Steam and GOG
Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller began in October 2012 as a four-episode series in which players investigate the murder of Scott Reed, the clairvoyant protagonist's brother. The game's final episode, called The Cain Killer, will launch September 19 for PC and Mac, Phoenix Online Studios announced. Additionally, once the fourth episode arrives, the whole series will finally launch on Steam and GOG.com. Cognition was Greenlit on Steam in June, thanks to over 25,000 votes by the community, according to the developer.
Guncraft, Cognition among eight games Greenlit on Steam
Steam Greenlight recently gave the go-ahead for eight games and three pieces of software to begin distribution on Steam. The greenlit games were Guncraft by Exacto Game Studios, Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller by Phoenix Online Studios, Wild Games Studio's Day One : Garry's Incident, Homesick by Lucky Pause, In Verbis Virtus by Indomitus Games, XGen Studios' Super Motherload, Vector by Nekki and Verdun by Blackmill Games. The apps greenlit this week were Actual Multiple Monitors, FL Studio and Leadwerks 3: Steam Edition.
Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller launches episode 3, The Oracle
Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller, the Kickstarted adventure game from Phoenix Online Studios and Gabriel Knight writer Jane Jensen, is now on its third episode and things are really heating up. Watch the trailer and that line is funny, we promise. Well, funnier. Episode three is subtitled The Oracle, and it continues the tale of Erica, a psychic FBI agent, as she tracks down a serial killer. "Cognition's third episode picks up right where the last left off, with a body hurtling down the Enthon Towers' 33 stories to smash onto a parked police cruiser," the press release describes. Players are able to control Erica and the serial killer as the (gruesome) story unfolds. Cognition will have four parts in total, with the final called The Cain Killer. Grab The Oracle and any previous episodes via Phoenix Online – with sales live through tomorrow, May 17 at 3 p.m. ET – and if you like the series, vote for Cognition on Steam Greenlight.%Gallery-188646%
Thoughtful Bundle: Fieldrunners, Reckless Disregard for Gravity and more
Indie Royale's Thoughtful Bundle is live, and features five different PC and Mac games for a pay-the-minimum price, which is currently $5.46. Included in the bundle are Snapshot by Retro Affect, Cognition Episode 2: The Wise Monkey by Phoenix Online Studios, AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity by Dejobaan Games, Subatomic Studios' Fieldrunners and Snuggle Truck from Owlchemy Labs. Buyers that fork over at least $8 will also receive Night Animals, a chiptune album by Bright Primate.The Thoughtful Bundle will be available on Indie Royale's site until Saturday, March 23.
Explore the mysteries of Cognition in this new trailer
Now that Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller from indie dev Phoenix Online Studios has a publisher, it's time to get the promotion train going! Here's a new trailer for the adventure game's first episode, 'The Hangman.'
Reverb Publishing adds its touch to Jane Jensen's Cognition
Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller, designed by Gabriel Knight's Jane Jensen in cooperation with Silver Lining developer Phoenix Online Studios, sought its initial funding via Kickstarter last year. Now, it's acquired a more traditional partner: an actual publisher, in the form of Dungeon Defenders' Reverb Publishing. Reverb doesn't offer a specific date or platform information for the adventure game in its announcement, merely declaring its intent to bring it to "digital download platforms."Cognition is about a police detective who uses "post-cognition," an ability to touch objects and learn about their pasts, in her search for a serial killer.
Can playing WoW improve your brain power?
Can playing World of Warcraft maintain or improve your brain power? When it comes to specifics like improving cognitive function, there really haven't been many significant, sizeable research studies that can put hard numbers on the line. WoW player and early onset Alzheimer's disease sufferer Bill Craig would certainly attest to the power of gaming in maintaining brain function -- he's living proof that WoW can be a vital part of a brain-healthy regimen to stretch and maintain cognitive function. (If you haven't already read Bill's story, you owe it yourself to follow that link. It'll make your day.) So when news of a fresh research project looking at WoW's effects on cognitive abilities in older players started making the rounds in the national media, Bill was one of the first to ping us with an excited email. "Tell us something we didn't already know, right, Lisa?" he crowed. "Guess I might be called a 'pioneer' of sorts, huh?" Indeed, Bill, you're totally my hero -- and look out, because it looks like the scientific world is starting to catch on and catch up to our secrets. This week, WoW Insider interviews Dr. Jason Allaire at North Carolina State University, who co-authored the recent study showing that playing WoW can boost certain cognitive functions in older adults. Himself a former WoW player and long-time MMO player, Dr. Allaire shares a gaming-filtered view of how his research and WoW interrelate to show that indeed, World of Warcraft can be good for your brain.
Jane Jensen and Silver Lining devs reveal new adventure game, Cognition
Here's some awesome news for adventure fans: Gabriel Knight creator Jane Jensen is working on another project, with King's Quest: The Silver Lining dev Phoenix Online Studios, along with Titan Quest developer Khaeon Gamestudio and comic artist Roman Molenaar! Even better news: Phoenix's new game won't use any IP that Activision owns! Cognition is an episodic detective adventure about an FBI agent who gains the power to see past events related to any object she touches. Agent Erica Reed uses these abilities – and, hopefully, some traditional investigative methods as well – to hunt down a serial killer, and attempt to solve the murder of her brother. It's coming to PC, with mobile and console versions "also under consideration." Phoenix plans to release four episodes of Cognition, but needs your help to fund development. It's set up a Kickstarter seeking $25,000 for initial development costs. As always, there are bonuses associated with various Kickstarter tears, not the least of which is this game actually happening.
Princeton study shows that easy fonts make things harder to remember
Clicking your way through Ulysses and having a hard time remembering just what it is Bloom ate for breakfast or, indeed, just what he did on the beach? Don't blame James Joyce, blame your Kindle! A Princeton study entitled "Fortune favors the bold (and the Italicized)" (their emphasis) has shown that readers retain information more reliably when they are challenged with so-called "disfluent" fonts (like the top one above). This flies in the face of the belief that easy to read text is easier to remember and should give typographical titans something else to ponder when placing text upon a page character by character. Now, what does this have to do with e-readers? Most are stuck with standard fonts that cannot be changed and fall squarely in the "fluent" category -- they're so easy to read your brain spins down. The solution is, of course, to add more and broader font support to the devices, something we'd love to see regardless of scientific merit. Until that comes to pass try holding your Kindle at odd angles or squinting. Maybe that'll help. Or, you could just put down the Proust and pick up some Clancy.
DARPA sets sights on cameras that understand
DARPA wants to let you all know that its plans for the robot apocalypse are still going strong. The agency's got IBM working on the brains, has an RFI out on the skin, and is handling propulsion and motor control in-house. Next up? Eyeballs. In order to give its robots the same sort of "visual intelligence" currently limited to animals, DARPA is kicking off a new program called The Mind's Eye with a one-day scientific conference this April. The goal is a "smart camera" that can not only recognize objects, but also be able to describe what they're doing and why, allowing unmanned bots and surveillance systems to report back, or -- we're extrapolating here -- make tactical decisions of their own. To be clear, there's no funding or formal proposal requests for this project quite yet. But if the code does come to fruition, DARPA, please: make sure autoexec.bat includes a few Prime Directives.
The Virtual Whirl: Why virtual environments?
This week, in The Virtual Whirl, we're asking "Why virtual environments?" – Not why are they anything specifically, but just why. Depending on your definition of virtual environments, people have been building them and using them for decades now, since before the Web; since before the advent of the personal computer. To make a virtual space from a real space, or to fabricate an entirely original virtual space from whole cloth – what's driving that and where is that going?
Researcher zeroes in on kids playing RuneScape
Hey kids! Do you want to try an experiment? No, you won't get paid but you will help further scientific research through the process of "cognitive ethnography." Not interested? Hmmm, well, you do get to play video games... Oh, you are interested! Let me just get you these waivers to sign...Constance Steinkuehler is an MMO researcher studying teens and tweens in the world of RuneScape. Her research aims to find commonalities in thought process between young individuals who play MMOs. Her work will also assess the impacts of game play over a longer period on their daily lives, social relationships, and school work. Given the abundance and accessibility of games aimed at youth these days, it will be interesting to see how they influence us humans in our more impressionable years.
Researchers develop a robot that reads your intentions, says you're 'thick'
Robots won't be able to wrest control of the planet from us silly humans until they learn how to collaborate. Sure, they can mow the lawn or mix a drink, but only when you give 'em explicit instructions. Luckily for our future robot overlords, The EU's JAST project is studying the ways that humans work together, in the hope that it can someday teach robots to anticipate the actions and intentions of a human partner. "In our experiments the robot is not observing to learn a task," explains Wolfram Erlhagen from the University of Minho. "The JAST robots already know the task, but they observe behavior, map it against the task, and quickly learn to anticipate [partner actions] or spot errors when the partner does not follow the correct or expected procedure." This bad boy has a neural architecture that mimics what happens when two people interact, and the video below shows the rather melancholy automaton trying to convince his human partner to pick up the right pieces to complete a simple task. Watch it in action after the break.
Cognition Technologies' Semantic Map paves the way for the robot uprising
Cognition Technologies' new Semantic Map lets computers -- and, conceivably, evil robots -- "understand" the English language in much the same way humans do, based on word tenses and context in a sentence. With this technology, a computer or search engine can understand virtually every word in the English language -- for a vocabulary about ten times that of a typical American college graduate. The system is already being employed in search engines, allowing people to ask questions in human-phrasing instead of unnatural, machine formatted word strings. Researchers say the ability to understand language is an important building block of the nascent Semantic Web, and will make the Replicants of the future extremely difficult to detect.
