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Let the Mindgames Begin

Posted by michael on Tue Jul 20, 2004 11:59 AM
from the a-jedi-uses-the-force-for-knowledge-and-defense-never-for-attack dept.
Entertainment Games Science
chienr writes "Like Pong, but instead of paddles, you use your brainwaves to control the ball over to the opponent's goal, that's Mindball! This apparatus was previously an experiment under the name Brainball, and is now commercially available - here's another link with video."
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  • Controlling balls by the power of your mind? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 20 2004, @12:04PM (#9750201)
    At last, a computer game for women.

  • Seems ripe for... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 20 2004, @12:05PM (#9750203)
    doping scandals.

  • Not fair! (Score:5, Funny)

    by cloudkj (685320) on Tuesday July 20 2004, @12:05PM (#9750207)
    The freaking Jedis will have an unfair advantage over us mere mortals...

  • Take a nap (Score:5, Funny)

    by srleffler (721400) on Tuesday July 20 2004, @12:08PM (#9750216)
    It seems to me, that the best way to win would be to just close your eyes and ignore the ball. Better yet, take a nap.

    • Re:Take a nap (Score:5, Interesting)

      by marnargulus (776948) on Tuesday July 20 2004, @12:20PM (#9750285)
      Actually, brain activity would likely be at a peak during a dream stage. Hypnosis would be much better, where you can be told to basically "think of nothing" and come as close as possible.

      • Re:Take a nap (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Omerna (241397) <clbrewer@gmail.com> on Tuesday July 20 2004, @12:49PM (#9750646) Homepage
        Only if the game lasted a few hours. You don't start to dream right when you fall asleep; it's something like increments of 90 minutes after you fall asleep. For instance, fall asleep at 12:00 and you'd dream at 1:30, 3:00, 4:30, etc.
        • Unless you're narcoleptic, in which case it can occur in as few as 30 *seconds*.

          Also, hypnosis could be use to increase concentration which may prove useful in achieving the desired feedback state, but hypnosis in itself does not make any measurable change in wave patterns.

    • Re:Take a nap (Score:5, Funny)

      by 3Suns (250606) on Tuesday July 20 2004, @12:39PM (#9750505) Homepage
      You're pathetic! My grandmother could beat you at this game, and she's in a coma!
    • Are you saying that the best winning move is not to play?

  • Nothing new (Score:4, Funny)

    by i8urtaco (663163) on Tuesday July 20 2004, @12:08PM (#9750221)

    Atari was going to put out a similar device for their 2600 way back when.

    • Re:Nothing new (Score:5, Funny)

      by dr_dank (472072) on Tuesday July 20 2004, @12:35PM (#9750451) Homepage Journal
      Atari was going to put out a similar device for their 2600 way back when

      That doesn't compare to the disappointment of finding out that feeding pictures of models into your printer, hooking up a Barbie to jumpercables and waiting for an electrical storm with a bra on your head to make Kelly LeBrock emerge from your bedroom closet was bunk too.

  • This reminds me oddly of 2001 (Score:5, Interesting)

    by LeahofRivendell (797671) on Tuesday July 20 2004, @12:09PM (#9750223) Journal
    It's funny how in all of these futuristic shows we show people playing games and controlling cars with our minds. Now it's becoming a reality on a much quicker timescale than we imagined.

    It's just like how the book 2001 predicted we'd have space travel, and land on the moon, then we did, way before 2001. It's nice when technology moves faster than fiction.

  • The most relaxed player wins. Interesting. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 20 2004, @12:09PM (#9750226)
    So, in order to play you have to almost *not care* if you win or lose...

    This may have uses in anger management courses, but I can't see it popping up in bars and arcades any time soon. :)
    • This goes for any "game"... including music.

      When you care, you hesistate, and when you hesistate, you leave the groove.

      It's important to plow forward with a sense of abandonment. Any excess tension, mental or physical, will shut you down - no matter if you are in a concert hall, the golf course, or a tennis court!

  • Obligitory Star Trek Reference (Score:5, Funny)

    by Omega1045 (584264) on Tuesday July 20 2004, @12:10PM (#9750231)
    They had something like this on TNG's episode "The Game", where Wesley and Ensign Robin Lefler are the only ones on board that have not been taken over by a game you control with your mind. I am sure if Wil Wheaton is reading this he will have an Ashley Judd comment ;-)

  • Mindgames? (Score:5, Funny)

    by CajunArson (465943) on Tuesday July 20 2004, @12:10PM (#9750233) Journal
    I thought the real mindgames were all the 503's Slashdot has been throwing as part of a guerilla marketing campaign for the Manchurian Candidate or something.

  • EGG?! (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 20 2004, @12:14PM (#9750247)
    Isn't EGG electrogastrography...having to do with measuring stomach/digestive tract activity?

    Don't they mean the EEG, the electroencephalogram?

    A Concerned Reader by the name of Paolo (marcoe.net)

  • Yawn (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 20 2004, @12:15PM (#9750253)
    Wake me up when they are playing with a bottle of Janx Spirit.

    "Oh don't give me none more of that Old Janx Spirit/ No, don't you give me none more of that Old Janx Spirit/ For my head will fly, my tongue will lie, my eyes will fry and I may die/ Won't you pour me one more of that sinful Old Janx Spirit").

  • I Can't Really Play... (Score:5, Funny)

    by bfg9000 (726447) on Tuesday July 20 2004, @12:16PM (#9750257) Homepage Journal
    ... I don't have the minimum system requirements...

  • Instant Success (Score:3, Interesting)

    by cephyn (461066) on Tuesday July 20 2004, @12:19PM (#9750277) Homepage
    This tech is tailor made for the porn industry. Guaranteed profit, no ??? necessary.

  • Chevy Chase would say... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Wizzy Wig (618399) on Tuesday July 20 2004, @12:20PM (#9750289)
    "Be the ball, be the ball....."

  • Rather steep price (Score:3, Interesting)

    by grunt107 (739510) on Tuesday July 20 2004, @12:21PM (#9750293)
    $19k for a simplistic, albeit technically interesting, game seems rather steep. Now if it made Tyra Banks come rolling to me...

    • Re:Rather steep price (Score:5, Informative)

      by Not_Wiggins (686627) on Tuesday July 20 2004, @01:14PM (#9751023) Journal
      $19k for a simplistic, albeit technically interesting, game seems rather steep.

      Was thinking exactly the same thing.

      Instead of directly reading brainwaves, one could rig up a similar game using those cheap "bio-feedback" devices (you remember... the ones that attach to your finger and generate a tone? The "more relaxed" you are, the "lower" the tone goes).

      Sure, it wouldn't be *exactly* the same, but it would be a similar concept... and for under $50.

  • Lot of other stuff on this (Score:5, Interesting)

    by joeldg (518249) on Tuesday July 20 2004, @12:21PM (#9750297) Homepage
    That table looks like something from a pizza parlor circa 1985.

    Lot of other stuff on this:
    http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,58193,00. html [wired.com]

    and this one [karoo.net] which is funny..

    Cheers
  • ... it has really odd side effects. Its almost like psychokenesis.

    Thinking about it gets me angry, and everytime I get angry, slashdot gets 503 errors... Sorry about those, folks.

    Seriously, though... isn't there such a thing as 'rolling back production code,' and 'unit tests,' and 'testing out code on a test server before pushing to production'?
    Those of us that work in coding shops use these profusely... would be more professional to see something like this in action at slashdot.

    If you agree, pleas
    • Nah! Tinkering with production code is done by many major coding shops...

      Chicago Tribune: Link [yahoo.com]
      Additional: Hasn't missed a paper since the Chicago Fire...All I received Monday was the Business section. Didn't bring the company down...but hurt big!

      Sprint: Link [nwfusion.com]
      Additional: Sprint had to outsource it because if you own a sprint phone and ever called customer service, half the time they couldn't help you because the computers were down! Almost brought the company down.

      A&TT Wireless: Link [cio.com]
      Additi
  • This is also used to aid people who are completely paralysed to communicate through a PC.

    It uses a P6 response which is exercised through pre-emptive expectant brain activity. If you hook up a ECG, and filter the waveforms, at certain points a frequency jumps, at the point where you expect a red traffic light to go green.

    Signal processing of ECG signals allows you to isolate certain conditions of thought, and therefore, thought allows you to control whatever is triggered by the filters.

    Neat! I can save m

  • AAAaaakirrrrraaaaa! (Score:4, Funny)

    by j_d (26865) on Tuesday July 20 2004, @12:31PM (#9750393)
    you kids with your cheap jedi references. pah.
  • If you've ever been hooked to an EEG and get to look at the outputs, you quickly realize that you can control some of the signals a little. But it's a very low resolution signal.

    There was a "biofeedback" [webideas.com] boom back in the 1970s. Most of these ideas were tried back then.

  • How about the reverse? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by koa (95614) on Tuesday July 20 2004, @12:35PM (#9750452)
    Imagine a contest to see who can muster the largest amount of brainwaves?

    Of course; this might end up looking like a constipation contest if it got out of hand! heh

  • Once you started to lose... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by deathcloset (626704) on Tuesday July 20 2004, @12:38PM (#9750495) Journal
    You would probably keep losing.

    I'm guessing that the final loser would have to perform a forfeit, which was usually obscenely biological.

  • Spectacle (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Obiwan Kenobi (32807) <{evan} {at} {misterorange.com}> on Tuesday July 20 2004, @12:43PM (#9750556) Homepage
    Wow, this is fantastic stuff. Why are people complaining this is 'too simple'? What do you want, Honda ads featuring steering wheel-less cars?

    This is an absolute (apologies to Scott Bakula) Quantum Leap over anything I've ever seen before. I'm no scientist so I haven't seen the prior research, but this is amazing stuff. I think if the news media gets a hold of this one the interest would skyrocket.

    Whether this is proof of concept or not, the reality is that nothing has ever been created that is anywhere like this in the commerical market. Even for the super-rich, this is the toy to have. I could've swore this was $199.00 (by quickly misreading the price) and was pulling at my wallet when I realized my mistake.

    Where is the wonder? Where is the spectacle? Are we really so jaded to everything that when something unabashadly ingenius arrives, even in the most simplistic of forms, we can't simply enjoy it?

    I believe this is the beginning of an era, one that will only hasten its way here if this gets the attention it deserves. What geek wouldn't love to face-off with an archrival or friend?

    Battle of wits? Meeting of the minds? This is fantastic.

  • Control with your Mind != Detects Relaxation (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Spankophile (78098) on Tuesday July 20 2004, @12:51PM (#9750674) Homepage
    There is an art installation in Toronto called Deconism that asks people to sit around tables, each wearing similar "brainwave detection" devices. Your brain activity contributes to some computer generated music, thus you're doing musical improv with your MIND!!

    In actuality though, the difference between YOU CONTROL IT WITH YOUR MIND and "you take a few deep breaths, and your levels change" is quite a big dissapointment.

    This sounds no different.

    What I *really* want to see is something that you calibrate: i.e. Think "left," and the pattern is recognized, likewise for think "right." Then you can control an actual game of Pong or Arkanoid with your mind. That would impress me.

  • New Science from the Mindball home page (Score:3, Funny)

    by DynaSoar (714234) * on Tuesday July 20 2004, @12:58PM (#9750778) Journal
    "The biosensor system, registers the electrical activity in the brain - so called EGG."

    Cripes, I've been doing it wrong all these years. I thought it was electroencephalogram (EEG). Now I find out that the brain runs on chicken embryos.

    Makes sense though. Most people I know are either hard boiled, fried, or totally scrambled. I wonder if I can get a refund on my student loans and apply for chef's school instead.

    The anti-drug TV ad was right: "THIS IS YOUR BRAIN....."

  • Move the Ball (Score:5, Funny)

    by Prince Vegeta SSJ4 (718736) on Tuesday July 20 2004, @01:01PM (#9750824)
    Do not try and move the ball, that's impossible. Instead, Only try and realize the truth. You have no balls.

    ummmm. wait, that didn't come out right

  • So who is going to be the first to make a homebrew mindball system using an OpenEEG [sourceforge.net] interface?

    You could probably build the entire thing for less than $1000 in parts.

  • i did play this one! (Score:3, Informative)

    by rozz (766975) on Tuesday July 20 2004, @02:37PM (#9752049)
    i played the game one time at the CeBit expo this year ... but as the place was really crowded and loud, i had no ideea if i lost or win - i did not know if you win or loose when the ball comes to your place .. now i know - miserable failure
    why did u peaople post this, i was such a happy winner for several months

  • Mindball? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Dyolf Knip (165446) on Tuesday July 20 2004, @02:51PM (#9752271) Homepage
    Is it happy? Can we taunt it?

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