GDC 08: Take Control With Your Mind
The consoles and their control interfaces have been getting more innovative through the years. The Wiimote and Nunchuck are such cases. Now, the technology is moving another step beyond. Gamers will be able to control their games with their thoughts sooner than you may think!
At this year’s Game Developers Conference, Emotive unveiled a new peripheral that allows players to control their games with their minds. The headpiece picks up signals from your brain and learns how to interpret that data into commands. You can move, fire or interact with objects just by thinking about it. According to the developers, it can also sense the player’s emotional state.
Now you may think this is decades away, if that’s the case, you are wrong. Emotive plans to have the new device on shelves by December of this year. It’s actually going to be affordable too! At $299 each, the device isn’t that expensive for what it can reportedly do.
Although this is definitely something to be excited about, Emotive hasn’t proven yet that the peripheral can actually work as advertised. It can very well be another over-hyped clumsy controller when it comes out. Either way, I’m hoping for the best. The thought of controlling your games through your mind is enough to make me want it badly. I want it to work.