The future of Gaming?

Huw Dawson · Wed 20/02/2008 16:23:47

This is very Tom Clancy, is it not?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7254078.stm

If this is all its cracked up to be, then the applications could be truly phenominal!

- Huw

Akatosh · Wed 20/02/2008 16:42:08

The future is upon us, as it seems. Now where's my hoverboard that doesn't work over water?!

Seriously now. The chance this thing actually works, for a reasonable price, with a variety of applications, the time it is released (or it being released on time - or a at all) is about as high as the probability of the next Windows version being open source.

Buckethead · Wed 20/02/2008 16:50:37

The included image looks like a scene of Torchwood.

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens · Wed 20/02/2008 17:59:55

It sounds like a bit of sci-fantasy to me at this juncture but it's certainly interesting. Imagine the next slew of rpgs coming out where the player's face responds directly do your facial features and affects gameplay? "Don't stick your tongue out at ME, Mr. Hero!"

Emerald · Wed 20/02/2008 18:50:34

Goddamnit, I hate it when this happens... I really should copyright my ideas...

Now, when I do it, it'll look like I'm copying them...

(I seriously have started a game based on this exact concept...)

Akatosh · Wed 20/02/2008 20:33:04

Quote from: ProgZmax on Wed 20/02/2008 17:59:55
It sounds like a bit of sci-fantasy to me at this juncture but it's certainly interesting. Imagine the next slew of rpgs coming out where the player's face responds directly do your facial features and affects gameplay? "Don't stick your tongue out at ME, Mr. Hero!"

Can I headbutt the Annoying Plotdevice Character then? Now that is something I've been wanting to do for a long, long time.

Emerald · Wed 20/02/2008 23:01:28

Quote from: Akatosh on Wed 20/02/2008 20:33:04
Can I headbutt the Annoying Plotdevice Character then? Now that is something I've been wanting to do for a long, long time.

You mean the old mentor that will inevitably betray you, but that can't be preemptively decapitated in his sleep?

I hate him...

Eggie · Thu 21/02/2008 01:22:08

I would be screwed if a game required me to feel the emotion known as 'love' to complete it.

Gilbert · Thu 21/02/2008 03:14:14

Hehe when I first read the "Brain control" in the headline I thought it was the headset controlling your brain rather than controlling the game with your brain.

That makes no difference to me anyway.

Nine Toes · Thu 21/02/2008 06:53:41

Didn't they have a peripheral like this for the NES/SNES once upon a time? Didn't it fail miserably because it just didn't do what it was supposed to?

EDIT: Well, I was close... Atari Mindlink

The Mindlink didn't actually read neurons or any other part of your brain, but then again it was also never released.

ManicMatt · Thu 21/02/2008 23:43:54

*A guy plays Resident Evil 6 on his mind-reading games console*

NPC: "Why, all these zombies aren't scaring you, huh?"

*Read's the guy's brain*

NPC: "Ah, so you're scared of clowns I detect. Well lets hope we don't-OH MY GOD AN ARMY OF ZOMBIE CLOWNS!!"

*Guy pisses himself*

There's a point in there somewhere; and that point is that a game that is supposed to be scary that could actually read your mind properly could adapt to scare the hell out of you. Perhaps in this limited emotional response AI, it could experiment with different enemies to see which scare you the most. It would probably detect, if I was playing it, that walking zombies don't bother me, but some zombie wolf thing jumping at me all the time would unsettle me.

Nikolas · Thu 21/02/2008 23:48:41

Quote from: ProgZmax on Wed 20/02/2008 17:59:55
It sounds like a bit of sci-fantasy to me at this juncture but it's certainly interesting.

I do recall that at a scientific convention in Germany a couple of years ago, there was a simmilar mind helmet of sorts, with which, by reading electrical signals and a combination of yes/no (I suspect some kind of binary system), you could actually type in a virtual keyboard...

Pretty scary stuff if you ask me...

lo_res_man · Fri 22/02/2008 01:04:45

The only reason I like it is because this mass-production will cheapen this kind of technology, making it affordible for people completly paralyzed, allowing them to communicate and even move around in a wheel chair. And that is awsomeness.
As a game controller, I expect it to go the way of the you force, a picture of which is immortilized in the world book encyclopedia's article about computers, and of course dozens of websites bemoaning its craptacularnes

ThreeOhFour · Fri 22/02/2008 02:03:03

A few years ago, when I was in high school, some people came to my school with something similar in nature to this.

I watched my friend try it. He played pong. It looked like fun.

I am less skeptical and more interested. Innovative peripherals have been often terrible in the past, but I believe the concepts were ahead of their time in terms of the technology around to realise these concepts.

Also, good point about it expand options for wheelchair bound people. Could be very useful, providing it is safe.

Emerald · Fri 22/02/2008 12:33:39

Not only wheelchair-bound people. Imagine - if you will - a impulse-reading controller that you could use to write things almost immediately out of your head.

We'd never have to lift a finger, or figure out the right words to express ourselves again. Y'know, in theory. I doubt it'd be that sensitive though.

I do remember this time when I was at my friend's house, and his uncle had developed this game controller which was a lot like the Mindlink thing, only instead of muscle sensors, it detected subtle eye movements.

I played Unreal Tournament with my freaking eyes! That was pretty cool. (Well, I still had a keyboard and mouse - it's just that where ever I looked on the screen, the camera moved, which saved a lot of time and wrist strain, but also caused some accidents...)

vict0r · Fri 22/02/2008 13:27:18

Quote from: Emerald on Fri 22/02/2008 12:33:39
Not only wheelchair-bound people. Imagine - if you will - a impulse-reading controller that you could use to write things almost immediately out of your head.

I'd really rather actually think about what I'm writing... I can imagine the catastrophy!

"...and I love you so much tits and I always want to boobs and jugs be with you..."

Nikolas · Tue 04/03/2008 05:54:04

Heh...

sorry to bump this but:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkpEPth8ubs

If people can play the piano with their head, they certainly can play games as well and move Mario, or Tom Clancy, or whoever about...

ThreeOhFour · Tue 04/03/2008 11:37:08

...when you said people playing piano with their heads, I was a little hopeful of somebody playing a tune by pressing keys with their nose...

This may, in fact, be cooler! I wonder if you have to know the keys you should be hitting at that point, or if you imagine the note/chord/interval and the computer recognises it?

miguel · Tue 04/03/2008 12:12:42

Pigs have found the technology to play the piano!