Emotiv wants your brainpower

San Francisco (CA) - The phrase "use your brain" gets a new meaning with Emotiv’s development kit, which, according to the company, will allow the creation of games that can interface with a player’s thoughts, actions and emotions.

In fact, if Emotiv’s claims can be realized in computer games, there could be little that a gamer could hide, which ultimately could translate into a much more realistic game experience.

The developer says that its "brain computer interface solution" is able to "detect and process both human conscious thoughts and non-conscious emotions, including those represented by brain activity patterns unique to a particular individual." Dozens of expressions, gestures and emotions can be processed by the systems and computers will be able to differentiate between "thoughts of pushing an object or lifting it ; detect a user’s smile or win ; and respond to emotions such as excitement and calmness," Emotiv claims.

The company explained that the idea of the development kit, consisting of hardware and software, is to monitor electrical brain activity created by neurons. According to Emotiv, the software is smart enough to separate different types of brain activity and determine what basic thoughts or emotions are connected to them.

The development kit comes with sensors attached to a helmet and development software packages that are focused on identifying facial expressions, a player’s emotional state and conscious thoughts, enabling users "to move or manipulate objects just by thinking about an action, such as push, pull, lift or rotate."

Emotiv did not say when the technology could be available to consumers.