httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWOBSuKqiWU&feature=player_embedded#!
Supposed mind-reading peripherals are nothing new. The Atari Mindlink, for example, introduced the concept to gaming way back in 1983. It didn’t work exactly as described, though, unless the way you usually thought was to accompany your ponderings with an alarming staccato of violent facial tics: then, just then, you might get Pac-Man to drunkenly wobble across the screen for a couple seconds before Pinky, Blinky, Inky and Clyde get their inevitable gang bang in.
Things haven’t changed much since then: consumer mind-reading gadgets still usually don’t do any mind-reading at all. They haven’t sold very well, but companies keep trying. The latest plucky upstart in the supposed-mind-control-but-probably-forehead-reading accessory market is PLX, whose XWave headset plugs into any iOS device’s audio jack and supposedly lets you drive your iPhone with your throbbing frontal lobe.
PLX claims that “with [the] XWave, you will be able to detect attention and meditation levels, as well as train your mind to control things. Objects in a game can be controlled, lights in your living room can change color depending on your mood; the possibilities are limited to only the power of your imagination.”
Or, at least, the power of PLX’s imagination, since their demonstration video (embedded above) shows concept apps that give results that seem about as reproducible in a laboratory as those of your local dive bar’s coin-operated Love Tester machine. I’m somehow guessing those “Meditation” and “Attention” meters might be randomized.
It’s $100 bucks if you’re feeling overly credulous. PLX warns that the device is “for entertainment purposes and is not intended for medical use,” so don’t use it for psychic surgery or anything.
