emotiv

Scientists start hacking minds with cheap EEG gear

Are the deepest secrets of your mind safe? Could thieves trick you into revealing your bank card PIN or computer passwords just by thinking about them?

Theoretically, it could happen.

Ivan Martinovic of the University of Oxford and colleagues at the University of Geneva and University of California at Berkeley describe research into that question in a paper entitled "On the Feasibility of Side-Channel Attacks With Brain-Computer Interfaces" presented earlier this month at the 21st USENIX Security Symposium.

The research was inspired by the growing number of games and other mind apps available for low-cost consumer EEG devices such as Emotiv's EPOC headset, which lets users interact with computers using their thoughts alone. … Read more

Board of Imagination: A mind-controlled skateboard. Seriously

The guys at Chaotic Moon are on a roll. Literally.

First, they wowed CES with their Board of Awesomeness, a Microsoft Kinect-powered skateboard that the rider controls with various gestures. They parlayed that into a shopping cart that can follow you around a grocery store, scan your groceries, and possibly even check you out automatically. But all that was just January's work.

These days, the Austin-based Chaotic Moon Lab--the R&D arm of the larger studio--has taken the same skateboard I rode in Las Vegas in January and made a few X-Men-style modifications. Now it's powered by your mind.

The obviously named Board of Imagination integrates a neuroheadset from a company called Emotiv, with a Samsung tablet running Windows 8, which is in turn connected to the skateboard's motor. The headset translates thought into electrical circuitry that's routed through the tablet, into the motor, and powers the board. Simply put, you think--it goes. … Read more

LucasFilm sues firm over 'Jedi Mind' trademark

George Lucas' film company has filed a $5 million trademark-infringement lawsuit against Jedi Mind, a company that markets itself as allowing people to control computers with their brain waves.

The hostilities between LucasFilm and Jedi Mind began more than a year ago. According to Reuters, LucasFilm sent a cease-and-desist letter to Jedi Mind in May 2009, asking the company to change its name and to stop referencing the "Jedi Mind trick" when describing its products such as Master Mind and Jedi Mouse. The "Jedi Mind trick" first appeared in the "Star Wars" films.

At … Read more

Emotiv's headset gives users mind-control over digital objects

I've just made a small orange cube disappear with my mind. No hands necessary.

I'm testing out the San Francisco company's so-called brain control interface, the latest iteration of technology it first showed off a year ago, but which, unlike last year, is now almost ready for prime time.

The idea is a blending of hardware and software: A headset that seems a little like the one from the James Cameron-written 1995 film, Strange Days, complete with a set of sensors that are built to read your brain waves.

The software then is designed to interpret those … Read more