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Columbia University's low-cost robotic arm is controlled by facial muscles, we go face-on (video)
We've seen Emotiv's Epoc headset control cars and trapeze acts, but now a small posse of students at Columbia University is teaching it how to control a robotic arm. The appendage, aptly named ARM for Assistive Robotic Manipulator, was envisioned as a wheelchair attachment to help the disabled. According to the team, the goal was to keep costs in the neighborhood of $5,000 since insurance outfits Medicare and Medicaid won't foot a bill for assistive tech that's much more than $10,000. To keep costs low, the crew built the limb from laser cut wood, and managed to keep the final price tag at $3,200. Since picking up EEG signals and interpreting them accurately can be tricky, the group says it settled on monitoring EMG waves, which are triggered by muscle movements, for additional reliability. Lifting your eyebrows makes the device open its grip, clenching your teeth shuts it and moving your lips to the left and right twists the claw, while other motions are currently handled by using a PlayStation 2 controller. In the lab, the contraption has seven degrees of freedom, but it was reduced to five when we took it for a spin. It was hit or miss when this editor put the headgear on, between making sure facial gestures were spot on and the equipment's attempts to pick up clear signals.%Gallery-187534%
German researchers take mind-controlled car for a carefully-controlled spin
Emotiv's mind-reading EPOC headset may not have changed the face of video games, but it looks like it's proven to be more than adequate for a team of German researchers, who've used it as the key component in their BrainDriver project. Yes, that's a mind-controlled car and, after a bit of training, is does appear to have performed reasonably well -- albeit with a slight delay that makes any real world test a worse idea than it already was. Interestingly, this latest effort actually follows some previous attempts at a completely autonomous car by the same group of researchers at the Freie Universität Berlin, and they say that the two could eventually be combined at some point in the distant future -- for instance, in a taxi that's able to drive itself but also responds to the thoughts of its passengers. Head on past the break for the video.
Rovio robot controlled via Skype with Emotiv brain-reading headset
The Emotive EPOC "mind-control" headset may not be quite as advanced as some of the brain-reading devices unavailable to the general public, but it looks like it's at least accurate enough for some basic tasks -- like controlling a WowWee Rovio robot via Skype. That impressive feat was accomplished by the folks at ExtremeTech, who paired the headset with the Robodance 5 software program and Skype (not to mention plenty of custom code), which allows the Rovio to be controlled from afar using both facial and mental commands. Needless to say, that's a lot easier said than done, but you can check out the results in the video after the break, and find the complete details on the project at the source link below.
Emotiv EPOC gets reviewed by Joystiq, proves once and for all that videogames turn your brain into mush
We don't want to ruin everything for you, but after some extensive testing by our friends over at Joystiq, it looks like the promising Emotiv EPOC needs a little more time in the thought sensing oven. In its review Joystiq points out the fragile, hard-to-handle nature of the $299 device, but more disappointingly found the thought-sensing functionality of the sensor-stuffed EPOC headgear to be a bit too random, haphazard and inaccurate to actually be enjoyable. Of course, you could blindly assume that 400 hours spent in WoW and a six digit gamerscore has somehow disqualified this Joystiqer's mind from those joys of telepathy, but before you plunk down your hard earned cash and shave off contact points all around your skull, we'd say the full review is at least worth a skim.
Review: Emotiv EPOC, tough thoughts on the new mind-reading controller
We live in exciting times. You can, today, right now, actually buy in real life the kind of sci-fi gear you only expect to find in a video game. Controlling things -- anything but your own body, really -- with just your thoughts is a fantasy and sci-fi staple, whether it be Darth Vader force-choking some mouthy Imperial admiral or Professor Xavier commanding the X-Men from the comfort of his wheelchair, finger pressed to temple in grim concentration. But that fantasy is now reality, and you can control things (well, a thing) with just the power of your mind. Think it and your computer does it, no more pesky mice or keyboards or even voice commands. Or so the people at Emotiv would have us believe. Being the kind of guy who absolutely cannot wait for the day when, as Jonathan Coulton sings, "the things that make me weak and strange get engineered away," I pre-orded Emotiv's thought-controlled EPOC mind-computer interface device as soon as I thought I had $299 to spare. As it turned out, being the first on your block with the new toy comes with a real risk: you might end up buying a frustrating experimental prototype for the cost of five new video games. %Gallery-83470%
Emotiv mind-control device shipping December 21 for $299
Wait, you guys are still playing video games with your hands? What, are they baby games? For babies? We've been using Emotiv's EPOC human-computer interface for months now, allowing our cerebellums to play our games for us, completely cutting our appendageal middle men out of the equation. You'll have the same opportunity on December 21, when Emotiv ships limited quantities of the device to customers who decide to pony up for the $299 price tag. Of course, it doesn't work with all your games. Actually, from what we've seen, it's only capable of making boxes spin around and disappear. What it's really great at, however, is creating super awkward press conferences. [Via Engadget]
Emotiv EPOC human-computer interface supposedly on track to ship next month
Remember that Emotiv EPOC mind-controlled USB controller from last year? Well, we've been dreaming of controlling a game of pong with merely our thought waves ever since, and it looks like our wish might at last be granted. According Emotiv's site, the $299 headgear will be shipping in limited quantities to US customers on December 21st, just in time for your thoughts of the holidays to coalesce into a concentrated, computer-controlling tip. The device works with 14 "saline sensors" applied to the head, in addition to a gyroscope for controlling a camera or cursor, and it comes with the "EmoKey" software to define keyboard shortcuts to be activated by your various expressions and thoughts. Will computer use ever be the same? Yes, probably. [Thanks, Dan]
GDC08: Watch Emotiv's 'performance anxiety'
Emotiv's press conference was less than stellar (if you recall). Technical problems plagued the presentation, making us walk away saying "wow" ... but for all the wrong reasons. We were skeptical about brain controlled gaming, and Emotiv's conference did little to change our jaded expectations. The test subject utterly failed to produce the results the company expected, much to the dismay of the presenters. Watch the awkward silence that fills the room as we wait (and wait) for the test subject make a block disappear with the power of his mind! Afterwards, the company was forced to continue with a brave, but awkward presentation where we're encouraged to use our imaginations in lieu of a working demonstration. Ultimately, the company blamed the "very high power, frequency-hopping, spread-spectrum technology" headsets used by the sound crew for all the technical glitches. Hmm. Whatever caused the problems Emotiv faced, the night ended up being rather surreal, and we hope this video can capture a little bit of the awkwardness that filled the theater.
GDC08: Emotiv 'brain control' headset shows its kinks
"I think we found a bug," mocked an audience member during an embarrassing lapse in the presentation, one of countless hiccups that marred Emotiv's would-be grand unveiling of the "world's first consumer 'Brain Computer Interface'" (not "Brain Control Interface," as the press invite alluringly stated). Spunky CEO Nam Do kicked things off with a burst of energy, firing off adjectives like "super cool" and "uber-cool" to describe his company's 'next generation human-machine,' a conscious and non-conscious processor with a three-part 'total communication' interface: affectiv, expressiv and cognitiv. Clearly, something was missing. Nam explained that the machine could read feeling and emotion, things that "distinguish us from humans ... er, computers!" An assistant, Marco, entered stage right sporting Emotiv's neuro-headset, a mess of tentacled sensors wrapped around his temple, as Nam introduced Marco's virtual counterpart, Emobot. A robot head with a cute, round face began to mimic Marco's facial expressions on a large screen behind Nam. "Look cute, look cute," goaded Nam, and Marco and the Emobot responded, blinking their eyes and pursing their lips. Emobot followed along for a few more moments before freezing up -- and it was onto the next demonstration. Nam pressed Marco to "think of something, and make it happen" by manipulating a three-dimensional cube now occupying the center screen. A simple 'zoom' command seemingly worked, but when told to mind-push the cube along multiple axes, Marco failed. "Weak mind, weak mind," teased Nam, warding off the inevitable tension. He filled the pause with pseudo-science, something about electrical impulses converted into an image of thought within a roughly 90,000-dimensional space. (90,000 dimensions? Had we heard that right?) Marco was still squeezing his eyes shut, carefully molding thoughts with his hands. Still nothing ... and then ... the cube spun briefly to life. "You feeling okay to do the risky one?" Nam asked. (No, it was not a question.) %Gallery-16463%
Symbian OS v9.3 goes gold
My, how you've grown, Symbian. For those of us that have followed the platform since its EPOC roots, it's with a tear in our eye that we hear version 9.3 of the veteran smartphone operating system has gone out the door. Although something of a maintenance release, the new cut has a little something for everybody: native support for WiFi, over-the-air firmware updates (FOTA), USB 2.0 on-the-go, HSDPA, push to talk, and improved memory management are among the listed improvements. Apparently, v9.3 has been kickin' around for a while behind the scenes, as a Freescale / S60 reference platform is immediately available and Symbian claims handsets are already in development for 2007 releases -- we suppose the v9.1-based N73 will have to suffice until then.[Via Reg Hardware]
