Brain Controlled Pinball Becomes Reality

[coldfrog]

Since I've read about a lot of concepts of this technology in science magazines and websites, I was not so surprised to see it applied to, from an I/O perspective, one of the simplest games available. What WAS more surprising was to see that their choice of pinball machines was perhaps one of the greatest pinball machines of all times, The Addams Family. They not only know their science, but, probably, they know their pinball as well.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I wanna know one thing:

[HEADING=2]WHY[/HEADING]

Hopefully, this will drive the prices of the 'old' [ie: good] Pinball machines to record lows, making them affordable for the average person to purchase. This is my hope anyway ... I really want a pinball machine or several so this is probably just wishful thinking on my part ...

 

[Darren20]

Well certainly gives new meaning to the term pinball wizard.

 

[rokkolpo]

I think people are forgetting that this is a godsend for physically disabled gamers.

But otherwise yeah, I think it's just gonna make humanity lazier than it already is.

EEG equipment is not really cheap.
so godsend no.

and if you're disabled the last thing you want is gaming, i'd rather have someone working on my body to work.

 

[wfpdk]

FINALLY! I don't even have to move to play pinball... because, you know, the old way was soooo taxing.

 

[scotth266]

Snip.

By the way, if you want to mention it, the pinball machine being used to demo the technology is Addams Family Pinball.

I know because it's my favorite machine at my local arcade: I'd recognize that electric chair anywhere

 

[Rect Pola]

And then we'll have brain pong, which will lead to an explosion of braingames that'll first be cool and then oversaturate the market until it collapses under it's own weight. Then later when braingames have been ruled out a fad, a company from Japan (where braingames never really died) will bring the industry back to America.

 

[CrystalShadow]

How many of you have heard of the commercially produced versions of this idea?

Firstly there's the rather erratic OCZ NIA (Neural Impulse Actuator) http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/ocz_peripherals/nia-neural_impulse_actuator

Known for being rather unreliable, but improving reaction times in games...

And the far more impressive looking Emotiv Epoc.

http://www.emotiv.com/

Both of which demonstrate relatively cheap commercially produced EEG machines designed specifically with gaming in mind.

Still, as a technology for this, EEG still leaves a lot to be desired. You have to 'train' the computer to recognise your thoughts, and it apparently requires an insane amount of concentration to use one of these devices to actually control anything.

Personally, I'm interested, but only if it can improve the amount of control we have over games.
I find most gaming environments incredibly restrictive with regard to what you can do in them...

(Consider that the human body amounts to having 60+ degrees of freedom even in a highly simplified model; No game controller setup I can think of currently gets much past 15 degrees of freedom worth of controls.)

 

[addeB]

I, for one, cannot wait.

Then i guess we have some thing in common Tom.

 

[Javelk]

I'd buy that system

 

[hypern]

Some of this stuff could be used for complicated games but the barries that need to be overcome are understanding complex tasks and text, mutiple tasks.

 

[theownerer]

That guy looks bored wtf. If it was me id be like : "IM PLAYING PINBALL WITH MY GOD DAMN MIND!"

 

[BlindMessiah94]

I think people are forgetting that this is a godsend for physically disabled gamers.

But otherwise yeah, I think it's just gonna make humanity lazier than it already is.

EEG equipment is not really cheap.
so godsend no.

and if you're disabled the last thing you want is gaming, I'd rather have someone working on my body to work.

Fair enough expense wise, but the same could be said about almost any piece of technology. Over time it will become more affordable hopefully.
Also there are many disabled gamers out there who have some insanely awkward hardware. Saying that the last thing a disabled person wants is gaming is pretty misinformed. Many disabled persons have hobbies you know.
Of course their physical needs come first but a chance at having some fun and having it not be a chore?
I think they'd embrace that.

 

[z121231211]

This isn't just an improvement to gaming, but an improvement to just about anything.

We can now translate brain signals, just think of the possibilities of that. Pinball is just a simple starting point. Next could be all of us living like a telekinesis society.

 

[Wildrow12]

NOOOOOO! You fools! Now the psychic armies will be able to crush us with their BALLS OF STEEL!