to be completely pedantic, i already control all games i play with my mind...<p>more seriously, i worked on a brain-computer interface (BCI) system a few years ago that was supposed to do directional control of a cursor from scalp EEG recordings. A $90 eye tracker worked an order of magnitude better and three orders faster.
Interesting! I was big on this stuff seven years ago, when I found a "Star Wars Force Training" toy [1] -- you put the brain wave sensor on, which passes a signal that sets the strength of a fan that's blowing upward on a ball in a tube, and therefore its height. So it makes a neat brain-ball-height link. Unfortunately, it was really unreliable -- only for brief periods could I (or anyone) consistently set the height.<p>I also bought the OCZ Neural Impulse Actuator that you could use as a PC peripheral and it could detect alpha/beta brains waves as well as tension and eye movement, but which I really only found reliable for the last two. (You control tension by "gritting your teeth".)<p>[1] <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Science-Force-Trainer/dp/B001UZHASY" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Science-Force-Trainer/dp/B0...</a>
Cheap EEGs have interesting applications for the quantified-self people. For example, Gwern uses a similar device to get data about their sleep pattern.<p>> <a href="https://www.gwern.net/Zeo" rel="nofollow">https://www.gwern.net/Zeo</a>
this has been around for a few years, <a href="https://www.emotiv.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.emotiv.com/</a> and never really got any good.<p>sceptical to say the least.<p>You just don't get enough resolution via eegs.
What I really want is a highly sensitive position tracking set of breathable gloves, probably with some mild electric feedback. We have have loads of sensitivity and control in our hands. Why bother to dangerously wire to the brain when you can input/output via the hands? There would be a learning curve, but if it's possible to read braille and use sign language, I'd think it's possible to relay information to the hand via electric stimulus and from the hand by tracking movement.
Would interpreting the EEG in terms of commands given work more reliably if there were more sensors? If so, why are there so few sensors? If not, why not?
For real, this is one step before full VR reality and loss of humanity. Once people will have a choice between living there life and going full fantasy-mod of there choice there will be problems. It's nice that tech. goes forward, but we should step gently. Otherwise ''Roy: A Life Well Lived'' arcades will pop up everywhere.
If you want to experiment with an EEG device, that works look at Muse. They emphasize meditation feedback, but you can access your EEG raw data.<p><a href="http://www.choosemuse.com/research/" rel="nofollow">http://www.choosemuse.com/research/</a>
next generation will love this, while us old fart will scream about the ethical issues of recording and uploading brain scans to the private advertisement companies that'll run billboard in the virtual worlds...