Virtual reality (VR) technologies have already quite well "learned" to deceive our brain, eyes and ears, making them think that we are really in some other world and are the main character of this or that game. However, "soon" these technologies may reach a completely new level. And we will be able to travel inside virtual worlds with the help of our thoughts alone, without resorting to the help of special control devices, which are now actively used with VR headsets.
At the Game Developer's Conference earlier this month, staff psychologist and video game researcher Valve Mike Abinder shared his thoughts on the amazing possibilities for virtual reality that the integration of computer-to-brain interfaces into future VR headsets will bring.
Personalized gaming experience
The idea is to equip VR headsets with special sensors (like EEGs) that will read the electromagnetic signals from your brain and convert them into useful statistics for the game. Analyzing this data, Abinder said, will allow game developers to make games more interactive and personalized. For example, depending on your state of mind (you are sad, fun, scared, bored, etc.), the game will be able to adjust on the fly to your mood, as well as your "game mood".
In this case, the level design of each individual game will be able to adapt exclusively to a specific person using such a VR headset. Perhaps the same technology will allow you to create your ideal virtual avatar, almost completely "copying" your real appearance in the virtual world. This avatar can accurately mimic your current mood, facial expressions, your habits, and so on.
Empowering the Brain
According to the portal VentureBeat, there are several companies on the market that are already testing technologies that convert brain signals into game data. For example, startup Neurable is one such company, which is currently testing its computer-to-brain interface with commercially available VR headsets “to create natural empowering of our brains,” according to their website.
Of course, most of the ideas voiced by Abinder are his own assumptions about the possibilities that may open before us through a combination of virtual reality and brain scanning technologies. Today, even hospital grade EEG machines often have to deal with a lot of noise in the scanned data. This is especially true for non-invasive devices, as well as those that use electrodes to read signals. In the case of the same virtual reality headsets, this does not allow to provide the user with a high-quality new gaming experience originally laid down by this idea. Therefore, a lot of work will have to be done in this direction.
What do you think about the prospects of such technologies?
Nikolay Khizhnyak