What do you get when you cross two students at Cornell University, a baseball cap, EEG-scanning electrodes, and one of the earliest arcade games? Brain Pong, obviously.
Electrical engineering students Chuck Moyes and Mengxiang Jiang have built a video game rig that allows players to control a Pong paddle with only their minds. The paddle is moved up or down when the player either thinks about moving her feet or changes her concentration level. Although playing Pong with your brain may not seem all that important, one of the students points out in the video that the tech could eventually be used "for controlling a wheelchair, for accessibility purposes".
This isn't the first attempt at a brain-controlled game of Pong - you can see videos here and here of others who claim to have worked on the technology. But the Cornell students have come up with something that moves much, much faster, and doesn't cost too much: apparently the total budget to develop the game was under $75. In case you want it for yourself, Engadget has the source code right here. Check out video of Chuck and Mengxiang demonstrating the tech below:
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