I'm sure these brain-wave reading headsets will turn out to be a crude early version of what will be available in two or three years, but I'm nothing if not an early adopter,so I've just ordered one of the first of such devices to come to market. The OCZ "neural impulse activator" -- a bit of a cheezy title for the product to be sure -- promises to allow me to find ways to manipulate my computer using my thoughts. All this for a couple of hundred bucks -- how could I refuse? I suspect that what's really happening here is a little self-training to control combinations of brow-furrowing and eye-popping, but cheap methods of measuring bio-signals have come along by leaps and bounds in recent years, so one never knows what little surprises might be in store for me.
Other than the joy of gaming, I've been thinking a lot about the role of a computer interface in mediating our connections with cyberspace. In our lab, we think this is pretty important. That's why, when we place people into virtual environments simulating big houses, we lug a big van load full of delicate gear from our lab space to a large gym -- so that rather than using a mouse or a joystick to move around a space, people can just walk naturally.
I don't know how far this OCZ device will take me -- I'm keeping my expectations on the low side -- but imagine being able to generate an immersive virtual environment and then being able to wander through it just by wanting to, but separating the intention from the action itself, or at least much of it. Even if it begins to feel as though you're controlling your place with your thoughts, how is that going to affect your understanding of where you are?
And now back to my day job. Wait! This is my day job!
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