AlmostWorthKnowing.com...

Almost Worth Knowing: Mindball

While Mindball is not a new invention (it's been around since 2007), Interactive Productline's game is news to me. The Swedish Company's invention is a stress reduction tool in the form of a table, a ball, and two goals. The table is then connected to multiple wires which are connected to your head, in order to measure the activity of Alpha and Theta waves in your brain.

In short, the game is played by two players, sitting across from each other, attempting to move the ball into the opposite goal in order to win. The ball is controlled using a measure of brain activity, in which the player who is able to remain the most calm exerts the most force upon the ball. I find the game very interesting because it actually favors the less competitive of the two players. Moreover, it foreshadows a future in which computers can accurately measure emotions and use them in entertainment.

A Bit More Worth Knowing: While I won't go much into detail on the matter, the following Wikipedia page, Emotiv Systems, offers a glimpse into the apparently possible, and highly probable, future use of mind reading technologies in video gaming. For a little bit more elaboration on this subject, or just to see what else I have to say, check out my complementary page to this post: here.

The following videos demonstrate Mindball being played by some celebrities. The latter video, containing the judges of Canadian Idol, is longer, but a little bit boring.

Final Note: I would like to offer two conjectures on the game of Mindball and the technologies concerned. First: I bet females are naturally more anxious than males, and thus worse Mindball players. Second: I bet the best strategy to play Mindball is simply to fall asleep. How sad... the more bored you are, the better you probably are at playing the game.

Click here to see A Bit More on Emotiv Systems