New Star Wars Toy Lets You Use The Force For Real

[achilleas.k]

Rubbish. Absolute rubbish. It's a cheap EEG that just translates the strength of the signal it receives from your brain into fan spinning speed. We've had the ability/technology to measure "brainwaves" using EEG for DECADES. All this thing does is check how hard you're concentrating, which it can measure by the increased spiking activity in your brain. Whether you're concentrating on making the ball move or trying to remember what you had for dinner 2 weeks ago will have no difference for this piece of crap.

EDIT: I'm as big a Star Wars fan as most of the fans I know. I've spent most of my childhood pretending to fly X-Wings all over my living room. I would love to "use the force" any way possible, but this toy can only be one of two things: a) A really stupid gimmick for old Star Wars fans or b) a really overpriced toy for a kid that's too young to be playing with things that are priced over $100!

 

[dalek sec]

Until we can force lightning..count me out.

Pretty much the same for me as well.

 

[RavingPenguin]

While the tech it utilizes is certainly interesting and has far reaching implecations, The fact that you're spending $120 for a ball that floats up and down on a jet of air is not worth the price.
Maybe someday we'll be able to have the headset to control video games.

 

[Time Travelling Toaster]

I...want one that would be great fun for when I'm bored. So I'd be on it all the time.[/spoiler]

 

[IrrelevantTangent]

While the tech it utilizes is certainly interesting and has far reaching implecations, The fact that you're spending $120 for a ball that floats up and down on a jet of air is not worth the price.
Maybe someday we'll be able to have the headset to control video games.

True. It doesn't exactly get the most bang for your buck, but the fact that this technology exists and is readily available opens up a whole new world of ideas.

Maybe if there was some kind of way you could take the air jets off the apparatus and stick them on to some kind of mini-airplane thing....that way you could fly it with the power of your mind! Or something.

 

[civver]

$120 to levitate a ball in a tube. Sigh, people will buy all sorts of crap...

 

[AeroZeppelinSevenfold]

I want to play my video games with my mind. I don't want a controller, I want to think what the character does.

This wouldn't be good if your mind often wanders. You may be trying to walk to your next objective, when you notice that your character is doing some strange things. Like air guitar. Or something perverted.

 

[Nouw]

Somebody mod this into a force choker!!!!

 

[Ren3004]

At least when the Empire tries to conquer Earth we'll have an army of Jedi to fight them off...



by throwing ping-pong balls at invading forces

 

[APPCRASH]

This is going to destroy a lot of young minds when people tell them they don't actually have special powers, and that they are normal humans.

 

[achilleas.k]

While the tech it utilizes is certainly interesting and has far reaching implecations ...

It's really not interesting at all and has no implications. That's what's so sad about the whole thing (read my earlier post).

 

[CrystalShadow]

I think that the brainwave detecting device could be applied to games, would bring an interesting new dimension to gameplay.

would be way better then a wii mote...

Great. Now all they have to do is invent a controler like that for video games and people can play games with their minds.

They should totally incorporate this technology into a game. Imagine your playing a game like inFAMOUS and an extra power where you burst electricity like a wave if you concentrate really hard.
Probably end up as more shovelware on the wii though....

EDIT: would be a lot better if you could power the device with your mind rather than just turning on or off the fan. These technologies (like the tech that lets a person control a mouse with their mind) actually prove we could replicate telekinesis in the future - or at some of the rubbish powers from x-men

While the tech it utilizes is certainly interesting and has far reaching implecations, The fact that you're spending $120 for a ball that floats up and down on a jet of air is not worth the price.
Maybe someday we'll be able to have the headset to control video games.

I want to play my video games with my mind. I don't want a controller, I want to think what the character does.

This wouldn't be good if your mind often wanders. You may be trying to walk to your next objective, when you notice that your character is doing some strange things. Like air guitar. Or something perverted.

OK...

All you people talking about 'game controllers' like this, pay attention:

This one is already available:
http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/ocz_peripherals/nia-neural_impulse_actuator

This one is currently in development:
http://kotaku.com/241407/control-games-with-your-brain

And this one works, and has development kits available, but is not yet for sale to the general public. (it can determine facial expressions and emotional states, as well as allowing 'mind control')
http://www.emotiv.com/

 

[Therumancer]

Generally speaking we've been analyzing brain waves since what? The 1960s. All this really shows is that brain wave analyzers have become smaller and cheaper, and that someone figured out a way to hook one up to a remote control so it can operate based on the kind of simple exercises that proved brainwaves existed/were viable for study decades ago.

It's a neat toy, but not something I see as being paticularly incredible when I actually think about it. It's just a matter of "professional grade" technology coming into the consumer entertainment marker... and doing so rather late at that.

If the idea catches on you'll probably see more, similar gimmicks over a period of time.


-

As far as Japan's wierd directions of technological development... we've all heard stories, but other than some neat developments in robotics I haven't actually seen much, and they are more or less under the thumb of the US goverment when you get down to it (ie, despite being nice and diplomatic about it, our navy more or less occupies Japan, and they only have an SSDF by our say so). Chances are if they were coming up with anything paticularly cool, we would have seen more about it.

Truthfully I sort of suspect we're a lot closer to them creating some kind of pseudo-robotic live doll with adjustable sex toys than genetically superior humans, neural interfaces, or giant robotic war machines. If they had any serious progress on anything like that, chances are the US would have taken it from them a long time ago. That sounds mean and tyranical, but it's also fairly honest, and to be frank while they turn out some need science fiction and fantasy, and I like some aspects of their culture, I am personally a long way from trusting The Japanese. The racism implicit in things like the Mcdonalds Ads mentioned on these forums demonstrates why.

But heck, as guys like Cheeze Pavilian and others will probaby tell you, I'm a highly nationalistic, American cultural supremicist (with militant tendencies). I also think we
need more people like me.

I don't consider the Japanese "enemies" at the moment, but I don't make the mistake of thinking they are our bosom buddies either. I also think Japanaphilles and Weaaboos are insane given the remaining racism, and the stuff Japan was up to less than a century ago. Sad because once I was close to becoming a weaboo myself.

 

[Cody211282]

Wow 120$ for this thing? Whats more sad is that i know someone will buy this. Oh well their money, im still waiting for a real lightsaber.

Your right this is a waste of money, but i still want to play with it!

 

[manaman]

Wow 120$ for this thing? Whats more sad is that i know someone will buy this. Oh well their money, im still waiting for a real lightsaber.

I hear those or only 3 or 4 Thanksgivings away.

 

[manaman]

Wow 120$ for this thing? Whats more sad is that i know someone will buy this. Oh well their money, im still waiting for a real lightsaber.

I hear those or only 3 or 4 Thanksgivings away.

They better be, ive waited long enough for one. Must make my Anakin Skywalker fantasy come true...oh wait ive said too much.

Wait! So your fantasy is to separate a small boy from his mother, fill his head with fantasies, and make him follow you around for years until he grows up to found the emo movement?

 

[That One Six]

Well, I kind of want it, but it's a huge waste of money...