If you asked 100 people to rank their top 10 most-wanted super powers, Family Feud style, there’s a pretty good chance that telekinesis would end up on that list. Flying is great, as-is super strength and super speed, but they’re kind of played out. The power of telekinesis though, which allows you to move things using nothing but your mind, could be truly incredible.
That’s a bit too fantastical to really be something we can expect would ever happen though, at least not how it’s discussed in most pop culture. But with the power of technology we can get pretty close. Yesterday Facebook talked at F8 about their plans to create direct brain interfaces for VR. As we all know, brain waves are powerful and with the inclusion of neural interfaces like the Muse, developers are creating apps and programs that can be directly interacted with using nothing more than the power of thought.
One such developer is 4 I Lab, an indie studio based in Belarus. Previously they developed Drunk or Dead, but this time they’ve taken on a much more complex topic. “Not so long ago we’ve got a brain sensing headband (the Muse) that uses electroencephalography (EEG) to record the electrical activity of brain cell groups,” explained Alex Misilevich in an email to UploadVR. “Using readings of this headband we can tell if the person that is using it is focused or relaxed.”
Above you can see footage of the brief concept, tentatively titled The X-Power Project, in action.
To play the game users wear a Muse headband that interfaces with their brain while also wearing an HTC Vive headset. In the experience you’re tasked with saving people trapped on a school bus that’s about to fall off of a cliff. Look at them and focus to lift them into the air and relax your mind to release them. It’s a clever use of the technology and can make you feel like you have superpowers similar to Jean Grey.
“During recent AVRA Days Minsk 30 hour non-stop hackathon we’ve decided to make a game that will use this technology as a controller,” said Misilevich. “The most obvious idea was to use concentration to control superpowers. We chose telekinesis, so our players will be able to feel like superheroes, levitating people from the bus that is hanging from a destroyed bridge. To grab a person or an object they must focus on it, and then, using their sight, carry it to the destination point, where they release it by relaxing. This game was made only to prove the concept, but it shows the high potential of combining VR and neural interface technology.”
What do you think of the idea? Would you play a brain-power based game like this? Let us know in the comments below!
