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Saturday, October 6, 2007
'Brain Interfaces' Let Players Control Video Games With Thoughts, Not Thumbs
Friday, October 05, 2007
By Gene J. Koprowski
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Emotiv Systems Inc.
Emotiv Systems' brain-interface controller.
Emotiv Systems' brain-interface controller.
Thumbs. Who needs 'em?
Technology developers are poised in the next month to debut new "brain-computer interfaces," which will allow video game players to control their PlayStations and Xboxes with their thoughts, not their fingers.
The devices are powered by neurosensors, attached to points on the scalps of players, where the "Alpha," "Theta" and "Beta" brain waves can be detected, according to researchers.
These sensors are connected to the game controls, which move the on-screen characters left or right, up or down, faster or slower, depending upon the thoughts of the players. "Frontlines," "Doom" and "Tetris" may never be the same again.
• Click here for FOXNews.com's Patents and Innovation Center.
• Click here to visit FOXNews.com's Video Gaming Center.
"The technology is similar to the electroencephalogram that neurologists and other doctors use to measure brain activity," said Domenic Greco, a doctor of clinical psychology and the founder of SmartBrain Games, a developer in San Marcos, Calif. "It's a neuro-feedback system which sends a signal of brain activity to a specially designed game controller."
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The Week in Games: Sept. 28, 2007
/**/
These consumer technologies have been in development for years, but there will be "announcements that are coming in the next month with several collaborators," said Stanley Yang, CEO of NeuroSky, a developer of BCI sensors based in San Jose, Calif. "This is with well-known companies."
Some of the developers are keeping details very closely guarded, however.
"We very much appreciate your interest in Emotiv Systems and would love to keep you updated on all the news," said spokeswoman Susanna Hughes in San Francisco. "Unfortunately, at this time Emotiv will not be able to participate as the team is very much focused on development of the product, but there will be some announcements in the next couple of months."
• Click here to watch a YouTube clip demonstrating Emotiv's brain-controller interface.
Flight Simulators
The secretive culture surrounding the technology development is somewhat understandable, as these kinds of technologies first emerged in government laboratories.
NASA developed brain-computer interfaces for flight simulators at its Langley space flight center during the 1990s, and earlier this decade it licensed the technology to SmartBrain Games.
Other developers emerged out of the fringes of the medical sector, where experimental brain-computer interfaces were used by psychologists and neurologists and other clinicians to train children with ADD how to concentrate or quadriplegics how to use their limbs again after an accident.
These kinds of technologies emerged a few years ago and worked with an array of off-the-shelf games and game platforms. But they were designed for doctors, not for consumers, as the outputs were still similar to those seen on brain wave monitors at hospitals.
"One of the major challenges was that individuals had to come to an office of the doctor — psychologists, pediatricians, neurologists — and [the doctors] would administer the training," Greco said. "That was the downside — professionals needed to monitor this training, listening for feedback, and coach [patients] through it."
With the new consumer versions of this technology coming to market, consumers may see several benefits of this kind of brain training in addition to the excitement of playing a game without hand controls.
One benefit is that players can "improve their general concentration and focus," Greco said. "That has a lot of potential with the aging of the baby boom."
They can also improve their ability to relax, as stressful thoughts will speed up a game, and cool, calm and collected thoughts will slow things down on-screen, Greco said.
"You can also check other mental states — like attention and focus," Yang added.
This feature can also alter the game, in real-time, making it more challenging to play if the sensor detects that the player is bored in the early stages of play. "If the game is trying to detect your focus, it would be on a zero to 100 scale," Yang said.
There are other applications available in the lab, but the developers aren't rushing out to market with them.
"We have a lot of different capabilities, but we're only releasing capabilities that are proven for everybody," Yang said. "There is a big difference between science and engineering — engineered products work for everybody all the time.
"We try to go the engineering way — not pushing out all of our technologies, but only those that are tested in various temperatures, humidity and with different age groups. We want this to be viewed as a mature, wearable technology."
Scientists said there may be side-effects to the technology, as there are with all new innovations.
Greco is concerned that consumers may get into a relatively relaxed brain state, characterized by "Alpha" waves — the same brain waves present when one is about to sleep — then go out to the garage and try to drive a real car, with adverse consequences, such as an accident.
Said Greco: "When you start messing with the brain, that raises concerns."
/**/
Friday, October 05, 2007
By Gene J. Koprowski
Digg This!
del.icio.us
Emotiv Systems Inc.
Emotiv Systems' brain-interface controller.
Emotiv Systems' brain-interface controller.
Thumbs. Who needs 'em?
Technology developers are poised in the next month to debut new "brain-computer interfaces," which will allow video game players to control their PlayStations and Xboxes with their thoughts, not their fingers.
The devices are powered by neurosensors, attached to points on the scalps of players, where the "Alpha," "Theta" and "Beta" brain waves can be detected, according to researchers.
These sensors are connected to the game controls, which move the on-screen characters left or right, up or down, faster or slower, depending upon the thoughts of the players. "Frontlines," "Doom" and "Tetris" may never be the same again.
• Click here for FOXNews.com's Patents and Innovation Center.
• Click here to visit FOXNews.com's Video Gaming Center.
"The technology is similar to the electroencephalogram that neurologists and other doctors use to measure brain activity," said Domenic Greco, a doctor of clinical psychology and the founder of SmartBrain Games, a developer in San Marcos, Calif. "It's a neuro-feedback system which sends a signal of brain activity to a specially designed game controller."
Related
Stories
Nintendo Offers Free 'Wiimote' Cushion Cover
Cheating Rampant in Online Role-Playing Games
Review: 'Halo 3' Good, but Not Spectacular
Review: First-Person Shooters That Aren't 'Halo 3'
The Week in Games: Sept. 28, 2007
/**/
These consumer technologies have been in development for years, but there will be "announcements that are coming in the next month with several collaborators," said Stanley Yang, CEO of NeuroSky, a developer of BCI sensors based in San Jose, Calif. "This is with well-known companies."
Some of the developers are keeping details very closely guarded, however.
"We very much appreciate your interest in Emotiv Systems and would love to keep you updated on all the news," said spokeswoman Susanna Hughes in San Francisco. "Unfortunately, at this time Emotiv will not be able to participate as the team is very much focused on development of the product, but there will be some announcements in the next couple of months."
• Click here to watch a YouTube clip demonstrating Emotiv's brain-controller interface.
Flight Simulators
The secretive culture surrounding the technology development is somewhat understandable, as these kinds of technologies first emerged in government laboratories.
NASA developed brain-computer interfaces for flight simulators at its Langley space flight center during the 1990s, and earlier this decade it licensed the technology to SmartBrain Games.
Other developers emerged out of the fringes of the medical sector, where experimental brain-computer interfaces were used by psychologists and neurologists and other clinicians to train children with ADD how to concentrate or quadriplegics how to use their limbs again after an accident.
These kinds of technologies emerged a few years ago and worked with an array of off-the-shelf games and game platforms. But they were designed for doctors, not for consumers, as the outputs were still similar to those seen on brain wave monitors at hospitals.
"One of the major challenges was that individuals had to come to an office of the doctor — psychologists, pediatricians, neurologists — and [the doctors] would administer the training," Greco said. "That was the downside — professionals needed to monitor this training, listening for feedback, and coach [patients] through it."
With the new consumer versions of this technology coming to market, consumers may see several benefits of this kind of brain training in addition to the excitement of playing a game without hand controls.
One benefit is that players can "improve their general concentration and focus," Greco said. "That has a lot of potential with the aging of the baby boom."
They can also improve their ability to relax, as stressful thoughts will speed up a game, and cool, calm and collected thoughts will slow things down on-screen, Greco said.
"You can also check other mental states — like attention and focus," Yang added.
This feature can also alter the game, in real-time, making it more challenging to play if the sensor detects that the player is bored in the early stages of play. "If the game is trying to detect your focus, it would be on a zero to 100 scale," Yang said.
There are other applications available in the lab, but the developers aren't rushing out to market with them.
"We have a lot of different capabilities, but we're only releasing capabilities that are proven for everybody," Yang said. "There is a big difference between science and engineering — engineered products work for everybody all the time.
"We try to go the engineering way — not pushing out all of our technologies, but only those that are tested in various temperatures, humidity and with different age groups. We want this to be viewed as a mature, wearable technology."
Scientists said there may be side-effects to the technology, as there are with all new innovations.
Greco is concerned that consumers may get into a relatively relaxed brain state, characterized by "Alpha" waves — the same brain waves present when one is about to sleep — then go out to the garage and try to drive a real car, with adverse consequences, such as an accident.
Said Greco: "When you start messing with the brain, that raises concerns."
/**/
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
WASHINGTON (AP) -- It sounds like the plot for a scary B-movie: Germs go into orbit on a spaceship and come back stronger and deadlier than ever.
The space shuttle Atlantis mission in September 2006 carried salmonella into space.
But it really happened.
The germ: Salmonella, best known as a culprit in food poisoning.
The trip: Space shuttle mission STS-115, September 2006.
The reason: Scientists wanted to see how space travel affects germs, so they took some along -- carefully wrapped -- for the ride.
The result: Mice that were fed the space germs were three times more likely to get sick, and died more quickly, than mice fed identical germs that had remained behind on Earth.
"Wherever humans go, microbes go -- you can't sterilize humans. Wherever we go, under the oceans or orbiting the earth, the microbes go with us, and it's important that we understand ... how they're going to change," explained Cheryl Nickerson, an associate professor at the Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology at Arizona State University.
Nickerson added, in a telephone interview, that learning more about changes in germs has the potential to lead to novel new countermeasures for infectious disease.
She reports the results of the salmonella study in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The researchers placed identical strains of salmonella in containers and sent one into space aboard the shuttle, while the second was kept on Earth, under similar temperature conditions to the one in space.
After the shuttle returned, mice were given varying oral doses of the salmonella and then were watched.
After 25 days, 40 percent of the mice given the earthbound salmonella were still alive, compared with just 10 percent of those dosed with the germs from space. And the researchers found the amount of bacteria it took to kill half the mice was three times larger for the normal salmonella than for the space germs.
The researchers found 167 genes had changed in the salmonella that went to space.
Why?
"That's the 64 million dollar question," Nickerson said. "We do not know with 100 percent certainty what the mechanism is of space flight that's inducing these changes."
However, they think it's a force called fluid shear.
"Being cultured in microgravity means the force of the liquid passing over the cells is low." The cells "are responding not to microgravity, but indirectly to microgravity in the low fluid shear effects."
"There are areas in the body which are low shear, such as the gastrointestinal tract, where, obviously, salmonella finds itself," she went on. "So, it's clear this is an environment not just relevant to space flight, but to conditions here on Earth, including in the infected host."
She said it is an example of a response to a changed environment.
"These bugs can sense where they are by changes in their environment. The minute they sense a different environment, they change their genetic machinery so they can survive," she said.
The research was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Louisiana Board of Regents, Arizona Proteomics Consortium, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center, National Institutes of Health and the University of Arizona.
The space shuttle Atlantis mission in September 2006 carried salmonella into space.
But it really happened.
The germ: Salmonella, best known as a culprit in food poisoning.
The trip: Space shuttle mission STS-115, September 2006.
The reason: Scientists wanted to see how space travel affects germs, so they took some along -- carefully wrapped -- for the ride.
The result: Mice that were fed the space germs were three times more likely to get sick, and died more quickly, than mice fed identical germs that had remained behind on Earth.
"Wherever humans go, microbes go -- you can't sterilize humans. Wherever we go, under the oceans or orbiting the earth, the microbes go with us, and it's important that we understand ... how they're going to change," explained Cheryl Nickerson, an associate professor at the Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology at Arizona State University.
Nickerson added, in a telephone interview, that learning more about changes in germs has the potential to lead to novel new countermeasures for infectious disease.
She reports the results of the salmonella study in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The researchers placed identical strains of salmonella in containers and sent one into space aboard the shuttle, while the second was kept on Earth, under similar temperature conditions to the one in space.
After the shuttle returned, mice were given varying oral doses of the salmonella and then were watched.
After 25 days, 40 percent of the mice given the earthbound salmonella were still alive, compared with just 10 percent of those dosed with the germs from space. And the researchers found the amount of bacteria it took to kill half the mice was three times larger for the normal salmonella than for the space germs.
The researchers found 167 genes had changed in the salmonella that went to space.
Why?
"That's the 64 million dollar question," Nickerson said. "We do not know with 100 percent certainty what the mechanism is of space flight that's inducing these changes."
However, they think it's a force called fluid shear.
"Being cultured in microgravity means the force of the liquid passing over the cells is low." The cells "are responding not to microgravity, but indirectly to microgravity in the low fluid shear effects."
"There are areas in the body which are low shear, such as the gastrointestinal tract, where, obviously, salmonella finds itself," she went on. "So, it's clear this is an environment not just relevant to space flight, but to conditions here on Earth, including in the infected host."
She said it is an example of a response to a changed environment.
"These bugs can sense where they are by changes in their environment. The minute they sense a different environment, they change their genetic machinery so they can survive," she said.
The research was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Louisiana Board of Regents, Arizona Proteomics Consortium, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center, National Institutes of Health and the University of Arizona.
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