CES: IBM, Emotiv show advances in virtual reality worlds
Technology allows users to control an avatar using brain signals transmitted wirelessly to a PC

January 09, 2008 (Computerworld) -- LAS VEGAS -- Hundreds of products at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) here are devoted to new ways to input data to a PC or gaming console, including a variety of inputs via voice commands or gestures that are registered via video detection.

But another way demonstrated at CES is the ability to wirelessly transmit the brain's electronic signals, including emotions and cognitions, from sensors on a person's head to a PC.

Emotiv Systems Inc., an IBM partner, demonstrated an alpha version of a neural input device that it plans to unveil as a consumer product at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco next month.

View more stories from 2008 International CES IBM believes that such neural input can be an important part of a broad range of virtual reality uses for industry, not just for games, said Dave Kamalsky, project manager for virtual worlds research at IBM. Next to the Emotiv demonstration, IBM was showing a variety of virtual reality (VR) systems, including Second Life and Activeworlds, that businesses can use for training employees, holding meetings and demonstrating products to consumers.

Emotiv's working product name is the Emotiv Headset, which could sell for $200 to $300, similar to the cost of a high-end handheld game controller, said Patrick McGill, a spokesman for the San Francisco-based start-up.

The alpha version includes about a dozen sensors that pick up a brain's signals, which are transmitted via a 2.4-GHz wireless signal, said Emotiv product engineer Marco Della Torre. He demonstrated the alpha version while wearing the sensors that picked up his eye movements, eye blinks, smiles and frowns, which were shown the PC and a large display at the Emotiv booth. Each facial gesture was quickly and accurately recorded on a large graphical representation of a face on the display.

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