NeuroSky
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
NeuroSky, chaired by Stanley Yang, is a company based in San Jose, California, United States. Their technology is an example of a "Brain-Computer Interface."
Electroencephalography uses electrodes attached to the head to read the output of brain signals, small electrical neural impulses generated by thought and mental state.
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[edit] Capabilities
Currently Neurosky's product can only detect the levels of two emotions. How attentive the user is feeling, and how meditative the user is feeling.[1] They are two separate detections, so the user could for example be attentive and meditative at the same time. Other emotions are also planned, including anxiety and drowsiness. Unlike competing products, it can't detect conscious thoughts or facial expressions, but it comes at a much cheaper price.
NeuroSky has created a game to demonstrate their product, which allows players to push objects such as cars or furniture by concentrating on them (attention), and to levitate objects by relaxing (meditation). Movement and view control would still be done using conventional game controls, and which object is pushed or levitated is controlled by where your character is looking rather than based on which object you think about.
[edit] Technology
NeuroSky does not market directly to the public (unless they want to buy the whole SDK for more than a thousand dollars). Instead they license their technology, or sell their headsets, to other companies to incorporate into that company's products. It is likely to be integrated into toys or other devices and not just as a PC peripheral. Companies which have publicly announced they are working with NeuroSky include Sega Toys, and Musinaut.
Neurosky's hardware, the Think-Gear module, uses their patented dry-active sensor technology to read the brain signals. The electrodes of standard medical electroencephalography use a conductive gel to facilitate the reading of the signals. Dry-active sensor technology does not need such a gel and unlike medical EEG or Emotiv's headset, which both use many electrodes, NeuroSky only uses one.
[edit] Project Millennia
In addition to their "Think-Gear" line, Neurosky are also working on a more advanced version of their headset, named "Project Millennia" (Emotiv's competing product was named "Project Epoc").
Project Millennia includes head and eye tracking plus stereo sound, in addition to the EEG. Head tracking will be by Memsic accelerometers, and eye tracking will done with Eye-Com's eye tracking glasses. This will give the headset some of the same abilities as Emotiv's competing product which also features head and eye tracking, but with gyros and EEG.
[edit] Competitors
There are three main commercial-competitors in this area (expected launch date mentioned in brackets) which are going to launch such devices primarily for gaming- and PC-users:
- Neural Impulse Actuator (April, 2008)
- Emotiv Systems (Christmas/Holiday Season, 2008)
- NeuroSky (Not Declared)
