Video Games As a Way to Make Brain Waves Move Objects

According to the Los Angeles Times, astonishing advances in the ability to harness brain waves have made the fantastic notion of moving and controlling objects with the mind possible. Now neuroscientists are trying to figure out another question:

Is there a "killer app" that will demonstrate the true potential of tapping into brain waves and igniting the neurotechnology revolution.

Medicine, perhaps? Education? How about video games?

Over the last decade, video games have helped push cutting-edge technologies such as sensor-based computing -  Nintendo's Wii - and gesture-based computing - Microsoft's Kinect - into the mainstream, the L.A. Times reports.

Neurotech boosters hope video games can do the same for their budding industry.

"Now is the time to bring these communities together," said Zack Lynch, the conference organizer and founder of the Neurotech Industry Organization. "We want to start the conversation to see where we could actually take these technologies and to begin to create new experiences that really push the boundaries of reality."

The ability to read brain waves has been around at least since the 1920s through a technique for capturing the brain's electrical impulses called electroencephalography, or EEG, by attaching sensors to the head. Now, brain waves can be read by small sensors that continue to become more powerful and less expensive, the Times reported.

At the same time, sensors of various kinds are being built into all sorts of gadgets such as smartphones and health monitoring wristbands such as those made by Jawbone. Observers say this is making people more comfortable with the idea of wearing technology that includes sensors that collect tremendous amounts of the most intimate data.

"I think it's a really exciting time right now," said Anders Grunnet-Jepsen, director of advanced technology and perceptual computing at Intel Corp. "I think the public is ready for exploring other types of sensors."

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