NeuroSky Has Gaming On The Brain

Wasn't there a Star Trek: TNG episode where all the characters ended up addicted to some headset games console?  Something about a crazy bouncing ball.  Anyway, hopefully NeuroSky's potential customers for their new brain-wave sensing games machine won't have seen the series and thus won't be put off their Star Wars themed console.

Consisting of a headset, that can monitor the brain-waves of the person wearing it, and a model lightsaber, gamers must concentrate on a single thought or mental image and not let their imagination wander.  Succeed, and the lightsaber powers up; fail, and it goes dead.

In a way, it's nothing new.  Biofeedback has long been used in psychological testing, measuring the unspoken moods and feelings of test subjects, but NeuroSky believe it has potential applications in bringing the mental demands on physical gaming into the electronic arena.

At the heart of the system is an innovative "dry-active" sensor that needs no conductive gel to make a decent contact with the forehead, and that can be packaged in a headset with a price-point around $20.  They're promising that the NeuroSky technology will be featured in a product launched at this year's Japan Toy Association in June.

Yahoo! News [via Gear Log]