What on earth is this?
What on earth is this?
Author
Discussion

Dupont666

Original Poster:

22,857 posts

221 months

Monday 24th November 2008
quotequote all
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=91...

OCZ's Neural Impulse Actuator (nia)

A new era in computer control???

Can one of the friendly geeks assist me please, what, how, is it any good and finally im all confused???

Steve Evil

10,820 posts

258 months

Monday 24th November 2008
quotequote all
Will work off signals received from your brain, so rather than you having to click a button to fire, you simply think of firing and it'll do it for you. You have to sit there and train it for a while, so you think of firing a few times and it will tune into that particular signal and then associate that with whatever you've mapped to that thought.

Dupont666

Original Poster:

22,857 posts

221 months

Monday 24th November 2008
quotequote all
has anyone actually got one and would it be any good for things like GoW? as i think faster than my fat fingers can move...

Steve Evil

10,820 posts

258 months

Monday 24th November 2008
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Doubt it will work with a 360, probably PC only for a while, until Sony or Microsoft decide to bundle mind-control peripherals with the next generation of consoles.

Mission Drift

38 posts

214 months

Monday 24th November 2008
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So what happens if you start thinking about porn?

The_Jackal

4,854 posts

226 months

Monday 24th November 2008
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These things are clever technology but will never catch on with playing games.
The human brain doesnt have the ability to control its mind and focus long enough for it to be practical.

NASA developed a control system for the Space Shuttle whereby the astronauts just had to look at a switch for it to operate. It was scrapped because even the highly trained astronauts couldnt control their eyes movements for more than 30 minutes before fatugue set in.

Could you imagine playing GOW and having to think in a certain way every time you wanted to fire off a shot in a frantic deathmatch? You'd be selling your mind control system on eBay within 5 minutes.

Famous Graham

26,553 posts

254 months

Monday 24th November 2008
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"Think in Russian..."

grim_d

765 posts

219 months

Monday 24th November 2008
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its controlled by your muscle movements and not your "Brain" as such.

mr cleese had a go on it on batteries not included.

Steve Evil

10,820 posts

258 months

Monday 24th November 2008
quotequote all
grim_d said:
its controlled by your muscle movements and not your "Brain" as such.

mr cleese had a go on it on batteries not included.
Oh right, so a double-eyebrow raise for shoot then?

CooperS

4,580 posts

248 months

Tuesday 25th November 2008
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grim_d said:
its controlled by your muscle movements and not your "Brain" as such.

mr cleese had a go on it on batteries not included.
Not the same thing.

This tech is obviously much more advance, but i would presume you'd have issues of loss of concentration.

Something i enjoyed reading was the ability for the camera to move with your head movements. Giving you the abilty to run way but look another without straffing.

Yugguy

10,728 posts

264 months

Tuesday 25th November 2008
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Will we have to think in Russian?

Alfanatic

9,339 posts

248 months

Tuesday 25th November 2008
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Famous Graham said:
"Think in Russian..."
laugh is that to control a certain third party web browser?

I've tried one, the model pictured I think, on a PC. I could get enough response out of the test software to convince me that I was actually controlling it... but in the absolute loosest sense of the term. I had nowhere near enough control to do anything useful on a PC with it, never mind play a first person shooter, and it seemed to be finding a lot of background noise. Might have been because the 6 people around me were constantly asking me what was happening and what I thought and whatever else they could do to make me not focus. I can't remember the exact details but I recall it was monitoring two types of brain waves, and I think eye movement somehow, and it was controlled (see disclaimer above) by looking around and occasionally frowning. It monitors electrical commands to facial muscles or something like that, rather than actually reading your thoughts.

As for the "camera moves with head movements" post, that can't be for the pictured device, which has no built-in screen. If you controlled any aspect of it by rotating your head it wouldn't help, because you'd no longer be looking at your monitor! EDIT: Actually that TrackIR device below proves my reasoning wrong so please ignore this paragraph.

Edited by Alfanatic on Tuesday 25th November 13:45


Edited by Alfanatic on Wednesday 26th November 12:55

twister

1,588 posts

265 months

Tuesday 25th November 2008
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Alfanatic said:
As for the "camera moves with head movements" post, that can't be for the pictured device, which has no built-in screen. If you controlled any aspect of it by rotating your head it wouldn't help, because you'd no longer be looking at your monitor!
TrackIR gives you the ability to control in-game views with small movements of your head, so although you're still looking towards your monitor, the combination of those small movements and the corresponding change in view is (apparently - I've not used it) quite immersive. So you don't necessarily need to move the screen...

Alfanatic

9,339 posts

248 months

Wednesday 26th November 2008
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twister said:
Alfanatic said:
As for the "camera moves with head movements" post, that can't be for the pictured device, which has no built-in screen. If you controlled any aspect of it by rotating your head it wouldn't help, because you'd no longer be looking at your monitor!
TrackIR gives you the ability to control in-game views with small movements of your head, so although you're still looking towards your monitor, the combination of those small movements and the corresponding change in view is (apparently - I've not used it) quite immersive. So you don't necessarily need to move the screen...
Jeeez. Thanks for that link... that looks brilliant! My first post has now been edited..

Edited by Alfanatic on Wednesday 26th November 12:54