Mind over Matter

Ancient Hindu scriptures and mythology talk about sages, with powers gained from meditation, who can create and move objects with their thoughts. These fables seem to be moving towards reality, at least virtual reality :-) Dean Takahashi in his coverage of CGDC 2007 in San Jose talks about Emotiv's brain-computer interface that convert a user's thoughts into actions in a computer game. Emotiv is a San Francisco based startup with Australian connections and a star studded executive and founding team. This is cool technology, bordering on Star Trek, where kids can cause action in a computer game without literally lifting a finger. As Dean points out, Emotiv is not the only company with similar technology. Neurosky, a Silicon Valley company, has similar technology and is targeting a wider range of industries and applications. Wired Magazine talks about mind controlled wheel chairs for the handicapped.

However, the computer game applications lead me to wonder where my kids are going to get any exercise at all, if this kind of thing catches on. :-) The Wii was taking a step in the opposite direction, with the game players actually having to move the control to simulate a tennis stroke or a golf swing. Just when I thought technology was moving in the right direction, we now have real mind games on the horizon. Technology is indeed moving at the speed of thought. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for the first games with this technology to be commercially available.