GDC 2007: Emotiv Systems Says “There Is No Spoon”

If Emotiv Systems has their way, you too can soon control your environment. Well, your virtual environment. In a game. No, I'm not kidding.

Emotiv is debuting their Project Epoc this week at GDC in San Francisco. Project Epoc is a headset that somehow reads the electric signals of your brain, and from those signals it determines exactly what you are trying to accomplish in your virtual environment. Once it has learned what your signals mean (there is a learning curve period in which the device learns to "read" you, apparently), the device then translates these signals or "thoughts" into virtual action.

At GDC, Emotiv is attempting to show developers the potential of Project Epoc and possible functionality in a game setting. This falls directly in line with Emotiv's stated mission:

Our mission is to create the ultimate interface for the next-generation of man-machine interaction, by evolving the interaction between human beings and electronic devices beyond the limits of conscious interface. Emotiv is creating technologies that allow machines to take both conscious and non-conscious inputs directly from your mind.

If this thing really can do what they say it can, I'd say they are one step in the direction of fulfilling this mission. Whether it's the right one or the wrong one, well, I suppose we'll see.