Toys You Control With Your Brain 83
Kaliann writes "Toys that respond to brainwaves are the next generation of unique user interfaces. The Washington Post looks at the current market appeal and future uses of technology that can meaningfully respond to the thoughts of a user. Currently the toys have a fairly simple basic idea: the harder you concentrate the more the object moves. A sensor on the forehead picks up brain waves that are associated with concentration, then levitates a ball in response: basic biofeedback. While this may seem to be a rather humble beginning, progress in this field could have astounding consequences in the advancement of technologies devoted to thought-controlled devices. As the author points out, Jedi Beer Pong is within our grasp."
Nintendo (Score:2, Informative)
lucid dreaming (Score:3, Informative)
As far as lucid dreaming goes, you don't even need to buy any fancy gear. If you haven't yet had a lucid dream (one where you are aware of the fact you are dreaming, AND you can sort of control it. Not really control it, but sort of nudge it along in the direction you want. Frinstance the dream where you are being chased by something, you can summon a +5 vorpal blade and confront it. The dream where you are naked in the student center and you are late for your exam and you don't know where it is and you didn't study anyway, you can change it so you are naked in your dorm room with that hot chick in biochem you had been meaning to ask out... I usually wake up at that point because that is stretching reality TOO far, even for a dream...but anyway)
As I was saying, if you've never had a lucid dream, all you need to do is keep a dream notebook. When you wake up, try to remember as much as possible and write down everything before it fades away. In two weeks, your conscious mind will be more "in tune" with your subconscious mind, dreams will be easier to remember and in greater detail, AND while you are dreaming, you will more easily become aware of the fact, and you can change things if you want. If you change it too much, you will likely wake up, but that's no big deal. They can also revert to regular dreaming easily, because if you are not actively controling things, you tend to forget in the dream that you are dreaming.
Third time I've seen this... (Score:1, Informative)
This is the third release of a "brain-controlled game" type setup I've seen, all involving putting a sensor on the forehead.
Mid 1980s. Atari planned to release a whole series of sensors (temperature, voltage, etc.) and a head-band sensor thingy, with software to go with it. The plan was to go in through the joystick port, which each had a voltage sensor (0 to 5 volts would read as 0 through 255). I think Atari hit hard times before they were going to release this, and so didn't.
The other I've seen is from sometime in the early 1990s... my grandparents picked up several at some flea market. The company that developed this one basically wrote demo games (DOS only) for it right about when Win95 came out. And then didn't port any API for Windows. I can't remember what it's called but last I saw some company (not the original one) STILL had a stock of these they were trying to sell.