While trolling around the Game Developer’s Conference this week, I stumbled upon an interesting app from MindGames which lets you use your brain to play a game.
Tug of Mind will be a $5 iPhone game aimed at teaching people how to stay calm under tense situations. You can upload a photo of someone that can cause you stress (boss, significant other, Lady Gaga), and a 3D model of their face will appear on your iPhone or iPod Touch. The face then says disparaging things to you, and if you remain calm, the face will gradually get calm too and stop insulting you.
You need a $200 NeuroSky headset to be attached to the iPhone in order to play the game and it measures electrical impulses in your head as well as your facial muscle reactions to determine what state of mind you’re in. MindGames told me they’re hoping this game can actually help people overcome real-life stressful situations. To be honest, I’m not smart enough to know the exact science of how it works but it seems like an interesting concept for how we may interact with devices in the future. While some are worried about the long-term effects of brain-controlled games, I think it can be incredibly useful if done right. Look for the game to hit later this year and NeuroSky is working on a cheaper, less dorky headset that could hit the market in the next few months.