/ News
Fantasy Game Uses Real-Life Mind Control
What does an indie video game developer have to do to get noticed on Kickstarter? That's the question that stillalive studios, a small Austria-based team of game developers, are trying to figure out.
Its game "Son of Nor" looks pretty sharp, with its desert fantasy aesthetic and a game mechanic that revolves around terraforming, or altering the environment. But stillalive studios added another feature, one that it hopes will bring the attention it needs to fund the game: mind control.
The game itself, built using the Unity game engine, is a combination of third-person combat and puzzles in the fantasy desert world of Noshrac. A main component of play revolves around manipulating the surrounding environment — using "telekenesis" to throw rocks, casting fire magic on sand to turn it into glass and using terraforming magic to create sinkholes and mountains out of the sand.
Using the Emotiv EPOC, a headset that monitors electrical signals in the brain, players can perform attacks and other moves within the game by raising their eyebrows, gritting their teeth or merely thinking.
Throughout the course of the game these in-game actions are calibrated to a type of thought pattern triggered by the player that is sensed through the Emotiv. So, when the player thinks that thought again, the Emotiv can recognize it and translate it to the specified in-game move. [See also: 'Beyond: Two Souls' Video Game Challenges Screen Actors]
Adding the "mind control" feature didn't actually take that long, stillalive said. Emotiv provides tools that let developers create apps to work with the Emotiv hardware. So mapping the functionality in "Son of Nor" to the Emotiv EPOC's scanning abilities was relatively straightforward.
Despite this, there are very few games that use Emotiv or similar hardware, such as the Mindwave Mobile, for hands-free gaming. So when "Son of Nor" appeared on Kickstarter, many people thought that the mind control aspect was a scam.
In response, stillalive's founder and lead programmer Julian Mautner released a proof-of-concept video in which he demonstrated casting a fire spell and terraforming the desert environment, both basic components of the game's mechanics, using only the Emotiv EPOC.
The Emotiv EPOC is not necessary to play the game, however.
"Basically, what we are trying to do is provide an additional immersive experience to the player, and maybe build up our name to be associated with Emotiv and other brain-computer interfaces," Mautner told TechNewsDaily.
TechNewsDaily wasn't able to try out the Emotiv EPOC device with the game because we didn't have the device in the office, but we did play a build using just the mouse and keyboard controls. You can check out more screenshots and contribute to the Kickstarter campaign at this link.
Mautner added that he had hoped the use of the Emotiv would bring "Son of Nor" more attention and by extension more Kickstarter funds, but so far, it hasn't worked out as well as he'd like. [See also: How Kickstarter Created a New Generation of Gaming]
"Son of Nor" is currently reaching the end of its Kickstarter campaign; with three days to go, they've only raised about two thirds of its $150,000 fundraising goal.
In comparison, Red Thread Games, a well-established video game studio whose previous titles "Dreamfall" and "The Longest Journey" are considered indie classics, recently finished a Kickstarter campaign for its sequel "Dreamfall Chapters." Its original goal was $850,000 — and it ended up with more than $1.5 million.
Source: http://www.technewsdaily.com/18180-son-of-nor-emotiv.html
/ About us
Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
/ Follow us at:
/ Contact:
For additional information, partnerships and sponsorship, contact:
info@2045.com
Media requesting information and interviews, contact PR@2045.com
LinkedIn
LiveJournal
Google
Twitter
Facebook
Я.ру
ВКонтакте
Mail.ru