Technabob » mind

Plx Devices Whips Out Xwave Brainwave Interface for iPhone/iPod/iPad

Shane McGlaun — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 16:00:30 +0000

Last Christmas I bought my son one of those games with the Star Wars brand that you were supposed to be able to control with your mind. The idea was you could move a ball up and down a tube just by thinking about it. It did actually work, but it wasn’t that much fun. Now, a company called PLX Devices has announced a new though control interface for games on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod called the XWave.

The device has a headset that plugs into the headphone port on top of the device. It works with an app that is free and has games that train the user to use their mind for controlling the little games. The games include changing the color of the screen by focusing and relaxing the mind and one that lets the user levitate a ball on the screen, and probably works nothing like what is shown in this promotional video…

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The headset the XWave system uses looks almost just like the one that the game my son had used, so it probably works in the same way. PLX has also announced an SDK so third-party developers can build their own applications and games to use the device. The system will ship in October and can be purchased now for $99.99 (USD).

Teletron: Mind-Controlled Theremin Makes Music With Your Thoughts

Technabob — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 00:37:26 +0000

If you thought that the way you play the theremin wasn’t weird enough, along comes a mod which allows you to make music with nothing more than your brain – no hands required.

Robert Schneider of The Apples in Stereo modded one of those Mattel Mindflex EEG games into a controller interface for an analog synthesizer. Here’s a video of Robert doing his geeky best to make music with his mind…

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The more Robert thinks, the higher the pitch. The less Robert thinks, the lower the pitch. To me, it seems like it would be pretty difficult to actually play anything resembling a song with the rig, but that’s just me.

Want to try it for yourself? Robert has been kind enough to provide this brief instructional video for you guys who want to give it a go…

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

[via Pitchfork via Make:]

Firefox 3 Easter Egg: the Robots have Arrived!

Karen M. — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:01:40 +0000

Firefox 3 hit the streets less than 24 hours ago, and a nifty little easter egg has already been uncovered. Simply type about:robots in the url bar and you’ll get this:

Oh no! They really are taking over!

I think my favorite bit is “Robots have seen things you people wouldn’t believe.” I wish they had elaborated on that a bit, as I would love to get inside the robot mind. Oh wait they don’t have minds. Or is it that they don’t have souls? I get confused.

Sega Brain Checker Asks Just How Stupid Are You?

Technabob — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 12:45:46 +0000

If you haven’t gotten a chance to play either of the Brain Age games on the Nintendo DS, you might want to check out this gadget from Japan’s SegaToys. Thanks to my limited knowledge of the Japanese language, I’m not 100% sure what the Brain Checker does, but it sure looks like it could be fun.

From what I can tell, the Brain Checker is a standalone mental acuity game, offering up a battery of mental fitness tests including math, pattern matching games and other puzzles to help figure out if your grey matter is in proper working order.

The portable gadget features a small LCD touch screen and stylus for controlling the games. It may be hard to find one of these outside of Japan, but from what I can tell, all of the games use pictures and numbers, so it should be playable regardless of your native tongue. Priced at ¥5,775 (appx. $51 USD), it’s about the same price as buying both of the Brain Age games for the Nintendo DS.

Now if my brain could only figure out where to buy one…