Psychic Controllers

There's a review up of a controller that works via thought patterns. Ooooh.

Now, I am a realist. I know that when Peter Molyneux predicts AI that's dynamic and awesome and changeable, he's lying through his teeth. I know when Bioware claims a dark fantasy world that it will be a generic fantasy world. I have played a virtual reality game (back in the earliest days of such things). I know that robots will not replace human beings for a long, long, long, long time if ever, and their "intelligence" is a complicated fraud. A cool fraud, but not actual intelligence.

And I know that there's got to be serious drawbacks with this thing.

Nevertheless - how awesome is that? Even better, they *claim* the device detects your emotional state (from bored to excited - nothing is said of fear, or surprise). The possibilities there are kind of staggering. I'm not about to shell out $300 for one - I assume this is a pretty crude device, and I prefer third-fourth generation devices, preferably after the price point has dropped - but it's interesting to think about programming a game where you have access to someone's emotional status. If the game could somehow sense the mingled resentment and rage when I hit a maze section, and offer me a way around it? If it could tell what elements (or at least scenarios) were emotionally satisfying (or at least not mind-rendingly boring)? That would be really cool.

Now I'd guess that this device isn't there yet, despite reports. Nevertheless, very interesting.