Two years ago I first wrote about the EPOC, a neuroheadset developed by a company called Emotiv. The EPOC uses EEG sensors and motion detection to read your brain activity and facial expressions. You can map specific thoughts to specific actions or events. For example, the EPOC can translate your thoughts into actions in a video game. You think about jumping and your video game character will jump.
You can use the EPOC to translate your brain activity into art or music. You can connect the EPOC to an electric wheelchair and use your thoughts to control the chair. You can use your thoughts to sort and categorize photos and videos on your computer. The potential applications are endless.
Tan Le, the CEO of Emotiv, demonstrated the EPOC at a recent TED conference. Check out the video below to see the neuroheadset in action.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
This is phenomenal. I’m blown away! can’t help but think about military uses as well — that will bring in the research dollars a lot more quickly than moving the curtains in your smart home.
Isn’t it fantastic? I can’t wait to see all the innovative uses people come up with for this technology!
You’re so right about the military uses. The potential applications come to mind right away. That’s where the most research money is spent nowadays, but hopefully we’ll all get to reap the benefits of their research.
Love it love it!! This is gonna change how the way we interact with the world!!
Sharing it everywhere!
Although I can see how hardcore gamers would like this to ‘do magic’ — I am seriously impressed with the automatic wheelchair example. I can see this being a boon to those para and quadra folks who could ‘just think’ and get their chair to operate… or their speaking computer to ‘speak’ without having to do blinks or winks, etc. Very cool.
Hi net97surferx,
I agree, the wheelchair example is wonderful. It really demonstrates how helpful this technology could be. If a paralyzed person can train the software to translate their thoughts of specific letters into the actual typing of those letters, it would make communication so much faster than the visual cue method being used now. I’m very excited to see all the applications that will eventually come from this technology.
~ Kris
Video games: why waste good technology on science and medicine when you can have better games?
Also, I thought it wouldn’t be long until something like this appeared but didn’t imagined it’s already here.
Hi Samuel,
There are loads of scientific and medical uses for the technology too. Near the end of the video, they demonstrate some of the other applications, such as being able to control a motorized wheelchair with your thoughts.
Many amazing scientific and medical discoveries have been made over the years thanks to funding in other areas — military research, consumer electronics research, etc. I certainly don’t knock the video game industry for investing in the research and development of new technology, especially when it’s easy to see how the benefits of their research will carry over into other fields. R&D costs money, and that money has to come from somewhere. I’d rather see that cost folded into the price of a video game than tacked on to the price of a paralyzed person’s wheelchair.
~ Kris