Kid plays Space Invaders with just his brain

Post by **marshallh** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 1:16 pm

http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/7800.html

14-year-old learns to control a computer running Space Invaders, by means of data taken straight from the brain's surface.

Watching the video, it looks like he has pretty good control over the game

jeroen · Post by **jeroen** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 1:22 pm

I always wonderd how such a thing would be. Like do you think left right? Or is it more like moving your arm too pick up something?

atari2600a · Post by **atari2600a** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 1:31 pm

Anyone else notice how shopped that photo w/ the 2600 & the scientists is?

Post by **Gamelver** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 1:49 pm

jeroen wrote:I always wonderd how such a thing would be. Like do you think left right? Or is it more like moving your arm too pick up something?

Usin' the noggin

With approval of the patient and his parents and the Washington University School of Medicine Institutional Review Board, Leuthardt and Moran connected the patient to a sophisticated computer running a special program known as BCI2000 (developed by their collaborator Gerwin Schalk at the Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health in Albany) which involves a video game that is linked to the ECoG grid. They then asked the boy to do various motor and speech tasks, moving his hands various ways, talking, and imagining. The team could see from the data which parts of the brain and what brain signals correlate to these movements. They then asked the boy to play a simple, two-dimensional Space Invaders game by actually moving his tongue and hand. He was then asked to imagine the same movements, but not to actually perform them with his hands or tongue. When he saw the cursor in the video game, he then controlled it with his brain.

Try reading

.

jeroen · Post by **jeroen** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 1:51 pm

I skimmed it ok?

Lucretius · Post by **Lucretius** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 2:51 pm

Okaaaay, but you asked, and it was right there in the article...

Anyway, this is pretty cool, but don't take it as am acomplishment for video games. They just worked as a catalyst for this fantastic experiement in neurology. Pretty cool catalyst, though...

Post by **gannon** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 3:28 pm

hmm...you'd think that he could do pong then too, or any 2600 game that uses the same 5 button controller

teraflop122 · Post by **teraflop122** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 3:32 pm

Yes, he could play just about any game using the same Atari control setup. Infact, he could play just about any game from any console, with only minor changes to the interface software.

Post by **Skyone** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 3:40 pm

atari2600a wrote:Anyone else notice how shopped that photo w/ the 2600 & the scientists is?

http://news-info.wustl.edu/pub/libs/ima ... 4955_h.jpg

Ya, looks so shopped.

Post by **gannon** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 3:43 pm

lol, either they're using an emulator with 2600 controller interfaces, have a different 2600 not pictured, have a 2600 with internal games hacked, or it's fake

Meh · Post by **Meh** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 4:42 pm

jeroen wrote:I always wonderd how such a thing would be. Like do you think left right? Or is it more like moving your arm too pick up something?

It's simple. Just map a nerve impulse to a specific control. Analogue sticks would be much harder to do.

gamer2 · Post by **gamer2** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 6:35 pm

I can controll games with my mind too, my hands are more involved though.

Post by **bicostp** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 8:58 pm

gannon wrote:lol, either they're using an emulator with 2600 controller interfaces, have a different 2600 not pictured, have a 2600 with internal games hacked, or it's fake

That looks more like a Flash remake of Space Invaders than the 2600 version...

Dare to compare!
http://www.atariage.com/screenshot_page ... abelID=462

Also, in that high-res image, note how there is no cartridge in the 2600...

Post by **gannon** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 9:04 pm

That's why I wrote that

Post by **bicostp** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 9:10 pm

But you know as well as I do that you have to make things blindingly obvious in order for anyone to get it lately.

That and I'm tired.

I'm pretty convinced it's a hoax. Only one relevant hit came up with Google News, and I struck out at CNN. That video could easily have been faked. Just have someone play the game with a controller off-frame. Simple! It never really shows his head (with the things attached), either. For now I'll chalk this up with cold fusion and Piltdown Man.