Other than a very vocal minority, most people agree that a mouse and keyboard
is the superior way to play games. But what if you're unable to use a mouse and keyboard?
Well, there are many accessibility-focused products out there,
like Microsoft's Adaptive Controller. But what if you're unable to use even those?
Well, you could always just control the computer
using your mind. But hold your horses, X-Men fans.
No one's going full Professor X anytime soon. But the future is looking bright
and we have BCIs or Brain Computer Interfaces to thank.
And of course, yes, our body is sort of already
a brain-to-computer interface. But the problem is that our fleshy meat bags
can be somewhat unreliable. If someone doesn't have full control of their arms or legs,
using a computer can be very difficult, more so if you also have difficulty speaking.
So that's why the work that scientists are doing on building hardware to allow people with physical impairments
to control computer devices with their minds is so important.
But how on earth does that work? Well, here's the thing.
The human brain already communicates with the body
via nerve impulses, which are electrical impulses
that travel all throughout your body so that your hands can crack open a can of Mountain Dew
to quench your thirst during a late night frag sash
or whatever else it is that you do in your spare time. These electrical impulses can be measured
by numerous different types of specialized technology,
but the most common due to its low cost and ease of use
is electroencephalography or EEG.
Now EEG uses multiple tiny electrodes placed on your scalp
to measure the small amount of voltage that your neurons output.
These readings are unique to the parts of your brain that are activated during a given task.
So let's say that you're speaking. That uses different parts of the brain
than visualizing an image or moving a body part or reading.
These thoughts and actions have unique activity signatures
that can be identified by the EEG. So with a little bit of help
from our good friend, machine learning, we can train a computer to recognize a particular signature
and then have it correspond to a specific function on a device.
A great example of this was an early BCI called the P300 Speller,
which allowed patients to type messages using their minds
so they could better communicate with others. It worked by flashing the rows and columns
of a matrix of letters while the user focused on the letter they wanted to type.
When the letter the user wanted to type flashed, a unique pattern of brain activity called the P300,
hence the name, occurred, which would then be detected by the EEG,
prompting the computer to type the letter. Nowadays, those very same concepts are being used
to do things as complex as flying drones
or controlling prosthetic limbs, but the really exciting stuff is yet to come.
I mean, imagine being able to access information on the internet with just a thought,
no more shouting, hey, G-O-O-G-L-E,
only to have your phone or your Google Home ignore you.
Instead, the information could be at your brain tips
instead of your fingertips. Or imagine being able to write out your thoughts
exactly the way that you envision them on the page or even create images from ideas that you have in your head
without ever needing to draw them. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination.
Tech entrepreneur extraordinaire Elon Musk has even taken notice of BCIs
and has founded a company called Neuralink with the goal of augmenting human intelligence
with machines so that humans don't become completely obsolete
in the face of the artificial intelligence future. Wow, Mr. Musk, that sounds great.
He wants to use a technology called Neuralace that would actually wrap around the brain
and allow it to send and receive data from a computer.
Now, obviously something like that is a long way
from hitting the mass market, but it may not also be as far away as you might think.
There are already commercial products on the market that you, yes you, can purchase.
Companies like NeuroSky have released some relatively cheap BCI products
that you can use to manipulate apps on your phone or your tablet, and they also manufactured
a popular Star Wars force trainer toy
that allows you to be able to approximate using the force
without any pesky midichlorians. There's also the Emotive Epoch,
a more prosumer grade option that can track your brain with even morphinus,
and that one's been used in the drone races that we mentioned earlier.
There's finally a mind-controllable VR game and development right now being created
by the company NeuroBull, and it actually uses the P300 signature
just like the old spelling machine. Oh, P300s, they grow up so fast.
So while brain-computer interface technology is still in its infancy,
this could be the next massive paradigm shift in how we interact with technology and each other.
Or with that said, it could also just be another hyped up disappointment like Fallout 76.
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