Emotiv, a startup firm in California, is developing a technology that will allow you to control games with the power of your mind.

Emotiv’s EPOC headset picks up electrical impulses from onboard electrodes and translates them into movement on the screen. This headset can pick up a wide range of motions, ranging from changing facial expressions to full body movements.

Emotiv

Emotiv’s technology is driven by a non-invasive electroencephalography, a technology most often used for detection and characterization of seizures. Each electrode is connected to an input of a differential amplifier, which boosts the signal received from the scalp. It’s then filtered and converted to a digital output which can be further translated by the hardware. The end result is movement on the screen, which if properly trained to the individual’s neural patterns, closely mimics what they are actually doing.

While no applications currently use Emotiv, by using their EmoKey software and their SDK expressions can be mapped to pre-existing software and the EPOC can be used as the controller. Some simple examples of use would be to set an emoticon to be triggered anytime you smile, or setting a complex macro to be set off when you lift your hands.

One question that hasn’t been answered is whether the resolution will be high enough for this technology to be useful for fine controls. EEGs are relatively low resolution and anything from a long head of hair to misplaced electrode could be enough to throw off the mapping. Emotiv is confident that this technology can be used in more than just games, and expect applications in everything from automotive applications to medicine.

Emotiv’s first application, however, will be a game; a game they plan to release at the end of this year.

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