2008 Woodie Awards
Drexel students create brain-controlled video game
Singh, Nelly
Issue date: 7/11/08 Section: News
In the age of highly interactive games such as the Wii, a group of six Drexel students have develeoped Lazybrains, a video game which requires no movement and only one's brain for the controller.
Lazybrains is a brain-computer interface that uses the brain's concentration levels to control the character.
"We're trying to push past the concept of generic controllers to controllers more intuitive … and make a brain device where we don't have to use any hands," Kenneth Oum, a senior BS/MS student in digital media and one of the team's artists, said.
The group of five digital media students confronted Hasan Ayaz, a biomedical engineering graduate student researching on the functional near-infrared imaging device, for their senior project. He helped them interface the device with the gaming engine.
The fNIR device is a headband placed on the forehead that projects infrared light to the frontal lobe on the brain and reads oxygenation levels, which are used in the game as the controller, according to team members.
When the mind concentrates, the blood gives off oxygen which is sensed by the device. At this point, the character has a pre-established set of actions; we cannot make the character throw when he is programmed to pick something up, according to Oum.
"I think Lazybrains is a great prototype to show what can be possible with similar games and biomed-devices. Also, as a first step, maybe this could be the entrance to a whole new world of living inside a game," Jordan Santell, the team leader, wrote in an e-mail.
fNIR is being deployed in a variety of medical areas such as anesthesia awareness, pediatric monitoring, mental health, ADHD, life education and training and even lie detection, according to Dr. Banu Onaral, director of the School of Biomedical Engineering and biomedical signal processing advisor for the fNIR device.
Many new technologies are costly because they are scarce. Interfacing the fNIR device to an entertainment medium such as a video game increases interest and will allow for a more practical application in research, according to Aaron Bohenick, one of the artists.
Some of the team members and others who have contributed from different departments are thinking about "continuing developing of the game, or a different game with similar concept, to further explore this brain-computer interface," according to Santell.
Lazybrains won't be marketed in the near future because the brian-computer interface is still a new area and further research is needed to find the optimal method of providing gameplay for the devices, according to Paul Diefenbach, professor in digital media and computer science and the faculty advisor for Lazybrains.
Lazybrains team members include Santell, Oum, Ayaz, Bohenick, James Borden and Zachary Brooks, as well as help from departments such as Digital Media, Biomedical Engineering and Computer Science.
Lazybrains is a brain-computer interface that uses the brain's concentration levels to control the character.
"We're trying to push past the concept of generic controllers to controllers more intuitive … and make a brain device where we don't have to use any hands," Kenneth Oum, a senior BS/MS student in digital media and one of the team's artists, said.
The group of five digital media students confronted Hasan Ayaz, a biomedical engineering graduate student researching on the functional near-infrared imaging device, for their senior project. He helped them interface the device with the gaming engine.
The fNIR device is a headband placed on the forehead that projects infrared light to the frontal lobe on the brain and reads oxygenation levels, which are used in the game as the controller, according to team members.
When the mind concentrates, the blood gives off oxygen which is sensed by the device. At this point, the character has a pre-established set of actions; we cannot make the character throw when he is programmed to pick something up, according to Oum.
"I think Lazybrains is a great prototype to show what can be possible with similar games and biomed-devices. Also, as a first step, maybe this could be the entrance to a whole new world of living inside a game," Jordan Santell, the team leader, wrote in an e-mail.
fNIR is being deployed in a variety of medical areas such as anesthesia awareness, pediatric monitoring, mental health, ADHD, life education and training and even lie detection, according to Dr. Banu Onaral, director of the School of Biomedical Engineering and biomedical signal processing advisor for the fNIR device.
Many new technologies are costly because they are scarce. Interfacing the fNIR device to an entertainment medium such as a video game increases interest and will allow for a more practical application in research, according to Aaron Bohenick, one of the artists.
Some of the team members and others who have contributed from different departments are thinking about "continuing developing of the game, or a different game with similar concept, to further explore this brain-computer interface," according to Santell.
Lazybrains won't be marketed in the near future because the brian-computer interface is still a new area and further research is needed to find the optimal method of providing gameplay for the devices, according to Paul Diefenbach, professor in digital media and computer science and the faculty advisor for Lazybrains.
Lazybrains team members include Santell, Oum, Ayaz, Bohenick, James Borden and Zachary Brooks, as well as help from departments such as Digital Media, Biomedical Engineering and Computer Science.
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