Try as I might, I just cannot handle the Playstation controller for much more than playing a show on Netflix or making a rainbow coloured, pixelated hut in Minecraft. I am aware that this makes me a failure as a human being.
Luckily, however, there’s a new technology being developed that could cure my controller-inadequacy altogether.
Imagine this: controlling stuff with the power of your mind.
Admittedly, all you’ll be controlling is stuff in virtual reality. Sorry to get your hopes up, Matilda fans. However, virtual reality is coming, and the times they are a’changing. Virtual reality is set to operate parallel to our ‘real’ reality, with the internet, social media, and all manner of other aspects of our digital lives finally leaping from the screen.
At the moment, virtual reality mostly relies on hand controllers, just like your XBox or Playstation (other consoles and devices are available). There’s talk of haptic gloves and small sensors overtaking these controllers, but this idea of doing away with hand-held gadgetry completely in favour of an EEG device on your head is pretty intriguing.
Silicon Valley startup, Neurable, has produced a game that works by reading the electromagnetic signals given off by your brain. In the game, you must break out of a tiny room without use of your hands. It’s not quite there yet, apparently, but it’s getting there (enough, at least, to be presented at the Siggraph computer graphics conference in LA this year). What it represents as a technology has applications far, far beyond gaming.
The Virtual Future
As I mentioned, virtual reality is coming closer and closer to engulfing the digital world as we know it. The sophistication of the technology is growing daily, and whilst what we’re seeing right now in the consumer space isn’t exactly The Matrix, there’s plenty to suggest that a metareality like that could be on its way.
Before I start digressing into how powering VR with your mind could basically turn you into Trinity or Morpheus, let’s talk about how mind-controlled VR would actually impact our day-to-day lives.
Neurotechnology
Neurotechnology is a major trend in the hardcore tech community right now. One of the reasons for the boom in interest is down to the Obama administration, who started an initiative in 2013 to provide substantial government financing for companies working on brain-computer interfaces. Venture capitalists have followed this initiative to the point of preparing to throw money at the technology, predicting its potential success.
“With the smartphone, we’re starting to reach the limits of what we can do,” Doug Clinton, the founder of Loup Ventures, a new venture capital firm that has invested in Neurable, told the New York Times. “These companies are the next step.”
Extremists like Elon Musk, with his new toy Neuralink, are powering towards a full brain-computer interface with implants in your brain itself. It’s attracting a lot of interest, but it’s scary and possibly unfeasible.
At the more acceptable end of the spectrum, using an EEG device hooked up to a machine learning algorithm, in turn hooked up to your VR headset or augmented reality glasses, could have some real benefits in a post-screen digital world.
Being able to navigate your way around an immersive virtual tour of a property, perhaps - for example - a property you’re considering buying, looking all around you and focusing on the elements of the experience that interest you most, would be very liberating, and even more immersive than VR is right now. That, of course, would interest us at EYESPY360 tremendously, but admittedly, it’s the tip of the iceberg.
Imagine never having to text with your fingers… never having to type on a keyboard ever again. That’s what Facebook is envisaging, anyway. I’m not sure how comfortable I am with the idea of my brain posting a Facebook status on its own, though. Would you trust your thoughts enough for that?
Whilst the jury’s out on the weird and somewhat terrifying ideas put forth by Musk and Zuckerberg regarding neurotech, Neurable’s technology might have the balance about right. There’s no reason to believe that the kind of AI-integrated EEG system they’re working on won’t be a part of how we interact with the virtual world in coming years. Ultimately, it’s pretty exciting to be at a stage in history at which we can even plausibly consider pushing physical boundaries in this way.
I just hope my brain’s better at controlling games than my fingers are.
