Gamers will have to add yet another new gadget to Christmas wishlists this year as the Emotiv Epoc Neuroheadset comes out. The neuro-headset interprets the interaction of neurons in the brain allowing interactions with a virtual world using their thoughts and emotions alone. The brain is made up of about 100 billion nerve cells, or neurons, which emit an electrical impulse when interacting. The headset implements a technology known as non-invasive electroencephalography (EEG) to read the neural activity.

The Epoc technology can be used to give authentic facial expressions to avatars of gamers in virtual worlds. For example, if the player smiles, winks, grimaces the headset can detect the expression and translate it to the avatar in game. It can also read emotions of players and translate those to the virtual world. “The headset could be used to improve the realism of emotional responses of AI characters in games,”Emotiv is working with IBM to develop the technology for uses in “strategic enterprise business markets and virtual worlds”. Emotiv has also recieved much interest from various other industries. It won’t be long before this technology will be used in vehicals.

How it works

- Sensors respond to the electrical impulses behind different thoughts; enabling a user’s brain to influence gameplay directly.
- Conscious thoughts, facial expressions, and non-conscious emotions can all be detected.
- Gyroscope enables a cursor or camera to be controlled by head movements.
- The headset uses wi-fi to connect to a computer.