The Emtotiv head set, available this fall, allows people to control video games with brain waves. The device, which I’ve covered previously, has been called “uncanny” and is likened to having ‘avatar ESP’.

Source: USA Today

The $299 device will help make games more compelling, responding to your emotional state to ratchet up (or down) the level of challenge in a game. One of the modules is described as follows:

Affectiv™ Suite
The Affectiv suite monitors player emotional states in real-time. It provides an extra dimension in game interaction by allowing the game to respond to a player’s emotions. Characters can transform in response to the player’s feeling. Music, scene lighting and effects can be tailored to heighten the experience for the player in real-time. The Affectiv suite can be used to monitor player state of mind and allow developers to adjust difficulty to suit each situation.

Whether there’s a danger or not in being able to, um, tweak a player’s emotions as they play doesn’t seem to be on anyone’s mind – they’re too boggled perhaps by the idea of thinking “forward” and moving forward.

The makers of Emotiv see potential for its use in virtual worlds. Tan Le, CEO of Emotiv, pictures being able to express yourself using the headset, telling USA Today:

“Right now, when you want your (Second Life) avatar to grin, you type it, which is completely unnatural,” Le says. “If we have it our way, EPOC will make avatars truly come to life.”

Some don’t see it as being a perfect fit to gaming platforms, but still call it uncanny:

“Some gamers aren’t sold on EPOC yet. “I’m not sure it’s at the point of being as precise as it would need to be” to function as a console substitute for most games, says Brian Crecente of gamer blog Kotaku.com, who had early experience with EPOC. “I don’t see it being a mainstream device in this form. That said, it’s certainly beyond a gimmick. Game issues aside, it’s uncanny.”"

It’s all about giving us new ways to interact with machines, says Le:

“We’re hoping to help evolve the way humans interact with machines.”

The machine’s ability to read our feelings, putting us under emotional surveillance, is vaguely troubling:

The EPOC is at once intuitive and complex: Slap the sleek white or black helmet on, fit the 16 brain-wave sensors in place, and you’re ready to program the device. Software automatically logs in a baseline for a range of emotions (relaxed, tense) and expressions (from winks to grimaces). Then users are asked to imagine 11 cognitive actions — “lift,” “push,” “pull” — for a few seconds each.

Even the player’s emotional state is under surveillance; EPOC is capable of ratcheting up the difficulty level if it detects the brain-wave equivalent of boredom.

It will certainly put a new spin on having an ‘emo fit’ – from the Emotiv on, not only will it be nearly impossible to find drama-free zones in world, drama will have a whole new set of expression.