The brain as video game controller

Posted 2009.06.18

I’ve been in London this week where Ogilvy held a digital event for one of their global clients. Yesterday evening they organized a digital Moroccan Souk for dinner. I’ll admit I wasn’t sure about the theme at first but it actually worked really well. There was a delicious Moroccan buffet, surrounded by tents where all sorts of vendors were demonstrating their latest digital technologies. Lots of very interesting stuff.

I spoke to the guys from TacTable about their dissappointment that they didnt make it into the latest Bond movie. They described some of the commercial applications of their multi-touch surfaces. One was an enormous dashboard for an IT client. It sounded intriguing so I will try and find out more.

Inition demonstrated MagicSymbol, an augmented reality technology similar to the one demonstrated in the lego example below :

But the most mindblowing technology (literally!) was shown by Roll7 who create computer games and digital applications. They were demonstrating their collaboration with NeuroSky who develop devices that allow people to interact with computer applications using their brainwaves. This resulted in a computer game where the speed of my character was determined by my levels of brain relaxation. The more relaxed I was, the faster my character went. I was pretty excited by the technology so I lost the race … . The video below shows how it works.