EmotivEpoc
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Chaotic Moon's Board of Awesomeness gains mind controls, becomes Board of Imagination
Remember the Board of Awesomeness we took for a spin back at CES? Well, the folks from Chaotic Moon went back to the lab to make it even better with a new control system, swapping out the Kinect sensor bar for an Emotiv EPOC headset and re-christened it the Board of Imagination. So, instead of using your hand to control the throttle, you simply visualize and focus on where you want to go, and the headset tells the board how fast to go to get there. The brains of the thing are still housed in a Samsung slate running Windows 8, and it can still shred asphalt at speeds up to 32mph, but now it's a truly mind-blowing experience. Don't believe us? Check out the Board of Imagination in action after the break.
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.
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]
