Mind Control Pong Can Be Played With Your Thoughts

[StewShearerOld]

Mind Control Pong Can Be Played With Your Thoughts

Researchers have created a version of Pong that's controlled with thought.

It doesn't get much simpler in the world of videogames than Pong. Whereas games today need advanced graphics engines, Pong needed a couple of lines and a dot to get the job done. Likewise, its controls didn't even require buttons, with many versions using a knob and nothing else.

Thanks to David Schwarz, a Duke Ph.D student, players don't even need their hands to play the game anymore. Using electrode caps that capture brain activity Schwarz has developed a version of the arcade classic that players can control with their thoughts. While the process requires a bit of practice to master, players attuned to the controls can move their paddles via thoughts and other actions like blinking and nodding. As with the original game, the Jedi mind-trick version of Pong is also monstrously addictive. "The first time I played, I played for like an hour and a half without stopping," said Vivek Subramanian, who helped Schwarz develop the game.

While Schwarz's mind-Pong demonstrates clear gaming uses for the neuroscience equipment he worked with, the goal's for the technology are actually a bit more practical. "Our lab is interested to make it possible for paralyzed people to recover independence," said Dr. Laura Oliveria, a senior research at the Nicolelis lab where the technology was originally developed. The lab hopes to develop systems where a disabled person could use a thought controlled exoskeleton to replace damaged body functions. Currently, the lab is working to help a paralyzed person perform the opening kickoff at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Source:<a href=http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/06/20/2978508/students-play-video-game-with.html>The News & Observer



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[Abomination]

And so it begins...

We already have replacement limbs that can move via the twitches in a person's arm but to actually allow control via thought alone? Now we're getting somewhere really awesome.

 

[VanQ]

This + Oculus Rift = The future.

We move closer every day, my friends.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

Kind of reminds me of this:
This + Oculus Rift + As Real As It Gets suit + Omni = virtual reality. It's basically here, man!

 

[Thaluikhain]

Playing games by blinking or using eyebrows is nothing new, you just stick fairly simple sensors on the person's face.

By thinking, though, is a bit different, but for something like Pong, where there is move left or move right and maybe not move, shouldn't be all that hard.

 

[Yuuki]

NOW we're talking, this is the direction I want to see game controllers move in - requiring less effort to use, being that much more responsive/intuitive and making us feel that much more immersed in the game. Humans are very good with their fingers, no doubt, but the day we'll be able to play a complex 3D game with nothing more than our thoughts is the day when all other forms of controllers can finally be thrown away.

Motion controls turned out to be about as immersion-breaking as things get and I don't really buy that VR will be the future of gaming. Playing for extended periods with a VR headset strapped to your head to control the ingame camera, I've already heard complaints about motion sickness, migraines and neck pain. As it currently stands there are simply too many limitations/drawbacks to list (especially when you start getting into competitive gaming) and it would be foolhardy to believe it will become the norm, like people in the 70's believing that we'd all have flying cars by now.

 

[Mr.Pandah]

The Schwarz is strong with this one.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

So if we combine this with something to stream sensory input directly into the brain, something to shut down the body and a microwave to fry the brain in case someone tries to stop without permission or just dies in the game, we might be able to play Sword Art Online.

 

[Xan Krieger]

He assumes the 2014 kickoff will be in Brazil, last I checked the country was in the middle of massive protests so unless something happens they're gonna need to pick another country.

 

[Bujiraso]

Hm... I wonder if this is news, really.
I have an NIA from OCZ, bought it in 2009? and it does allows me to play pong - as well as any game I hook up - with brain, muscular, and ocular activity.

 

[ZZoMBiE13]

And in tomorrow's news, Skynet has been founded...

 

[Tanakh]

This is old as hell. Just placing "electrode videogame" on Google yields to fucking tons of hits like this one http://www.picobay.com/projects/2006/05/controlling-a-video-game-with-brain-waves.html of people that did this, on more complex tasks, more than 6 years ago and gave a better written article.

I would suggest to do some basic research before posting stuff as journalistic work.

 

[VanQ]

So if we combine this with something to stream sensory input directly into the brain, something to shut down the body and a microwave to fry the brain in case someone tries to stop without permission or just dies in the game, we might be able to play Sword Art Online.

One can dream. We may live to be one of the lucky 10,000 players to get trapped inside Aincrad for a virtual death game. Link start.

 

[saintdane05]

Redundant title is redundant. "You use mind control with you're thoughts! Who thougt?!"

 

[Toothache of Sauron]

I'm fed up with charlatan titles whenever there's any news related to science (if it's taken from the source giving it like that, which I think is likely, is irrelevant, the title is still a piece of charlatanism).

And as said above, this same news is repeated eight times a year since several years ago.

Put a sensor on a part of the brain and when it activates, the sensor sends a signal and the receptor does something.

Pong is addictive. So when you put someone to play Pong, he'll find addictive. That part is like if I said "I made a system that when activating the area of the brain for the motor functions of the thumb, will release the smoke from a cigar placed in his lips. We have found that smoking with our magic thought smoke control, tobacco is addictive".

 

[Colt47]

This is old as hell. Just placing "electrode videogame" on Google yields to fucking tons of hits like this one http://www.picobay.com/projects/2006/05/controlling-a-video-game-with-brain-waves.html of people that did this, on more complex tasks, more than 6 years ago and gave a better written article.

I would suggest to do some basic research before posting stuff as journalistic work.

If anything it feels like they hit a limit on the capabilities of the technology and are now stuck trying to actually apply it in a useful fashion. Games make a good test bed, but there's a huge difference between moving a paddle and moving a leg. We've got multiple different sets of muscles in the legs and hips that allow the range of movement we enjoy everyday and each one requires unified, fine motor control.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Spoiler: We have learned enough about the secrets of the mind, using decades of research and billions of dollars to get to this point. What are we doing with it?

 

[Tanakh]

If anything it feels like they hit a limit on the capabilities of the technology and are now stuck trying to actually apply it in a useful fashion. Games make a good test bed, but there's a huge difference between moving a paddle and moving a leg. We've got multiple different sets of muscles in the legs and hips that allow the range of movement we enjoy everyday and each one requires unified, fine motor control.

Kinda, if by now you mean 1924 when the modern EEG was established. Moving machines with the mind is one of the oldest most recurrent themes on Sci Fi, and we have been trying to do this for decades now on videogames always with poor results, so far moving our hands to move the machine has been proven more effective.