For those who are just too competitive to relax by playing – Mindball is a game where two players control a ball with their brainwaves and the one who’s the most relaxed wins.
This is how it works – The brain waves are detected by sensors attached to the headbands which are connected to a biosensor system.
The biosensor system, registers the electrical activity and the player who is the most relaxed can make the ball roll over to his opponent’s goal with his brainw aves.
Developed by Interactive Instititute, a Swedish research institute, the product is being marketed by a Interactive Productline which intends to market and sell products the originate from the research institute.
Manufacturer: International ProductLine
Price: $19,000
Watch it in action (video):
Mindball movie, low resolution
Mindball movie, medium resolution
Yet another table game that Forest Gump will dominate.
Comment by Doug — 6/11/2004 @ 2:10 pm
Biosensor system used for brainwave game control
From Sensory Impact, "The brain waves are detected by sensors attached to the headbands which are connected to a biosensor system. The biosensor system, registers the electrical activity and the player who is the most relaxed can make the ball rol…
Trackback by GameWinners.com — 6/11/2004 @ 2:27 pm
Ooh, I want one! Great site design, btw.
Comment by lavonne — 6/11/2004 @ 2:39 pm
OMG HI GUYS FROM NINTELLIGENT NET
Comment by Vegetable — 6/11/2004 @ 6:42 pm
I saw this on Canadian TV about a couple of weeks ago. If I have a chance to play this, I must have to remind myself not to fall asleep while playing ;) .
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Trackback by My First JUGEM — 6/12/2004 @ 4:01 am
WOW great idea shame bout cost.This would be great for the future of video games it would totaly change the way you play
Comment by cmuk — 6/12/2004 @ 6:21 am
Hmmm, I wonder, can you reverse the values that the sensor picks up so that it would be a contest between the most active brain?
Comment by Ali — 6/12/2004 @ 8:58 pm
Of course you could, just play that whoever pushes the ball away wins instead of whoever pulls it wins. I was just thinking this would be a much better spectator sport as you would have to get all aggro and scream and shout and jump up and down :)!
Comment by Sean Straus — 6/14/2004 @ 5:42 am
Sean, I think that’s how the game IS played. You must mean to play where the object of the game is to pull the ball towards your hole.
Great idea, but is it really safe? :P
Comment by J Yamamoto — 6/14/2004 @ 10:59 am
I want to find some people playing this game, and yell from the crowd.
“OMG! He’s got a bomb!” and just see how calm the players can remain. ;)
Comment by Disaffected Youth — 6/14/2004 @ 11:12 am
좀더 상세한 내용이 없나요..?
Comment by hyonhak-cho — 6/15/2004 @ 2:42 am
cmuk, I agree totally. what if they used this to monior you when you played a scary game like resident evil? The less relaxed you and they could make the screen blurry or mess your controls or something!
Comment by jon — 6/15/2004 @ 8:25 pm
Here more info
http://smart.interactiveinstitute.se/smart/
projects/brainball/index_en.html
http://www.mindball.se/index.aspx?page=mindball
Comment by Bojidar Alexandrov — 6/18/2004 @ 6:13 am
$19,000 ?
Biofeedback is to be much cheaper
Comment by Hui Neng — 6/24/2004 @ 1:57 pm
Wow, this is awesome, the game where it’s an advantage to be stoned….
Comment by Traev — 7/5/2004 @ 12:31 am
i dont think it would be an advantage to be stoned you’d just loose concentration and start thinking about some weird spider or something or like some stupid new world order theory and get all worked up over nothing and loose.
Comment by dann — 7/18/2004 @ 1:44 am
Still another hype. I guess the most bored player wins.
Comment by DDT — 7/20/2004 @ 1:22 pm
SLASHDOTED
Comment by Gorgon — 7/20/2004 @ 1:34 pm
cool :)
it’s a pity that the movies are in WMV… :-/
Comment by ay — 7/20/2004 @ 1:41 pm
slashdoted!
Comment by slashdoted — 7/20/2004 @ 1:45 pm
Hmmm.. I bet the Zen masters would love to have this baby inside their monestaries. Or for that matter the Fakir Yogi’s of the East… Says one Yogi to another, “Hey, I’ll race you to Samadhi!”. Hmmm I wonder how much $19,000 USD in rupees?
Comment by ZenMaster — 7/20/2004 @ 1:58 pm
Am I the only one the sound does not work for? (mplayer .92)?
Comment by slick_rick — 7/20/2004 @ 2:07 pm
Not exactly a spectator sport
A swedish company has announced the commercial availability of Mindball, a game in which two players attempt to move a ball. Across a table. Using only their brain waves. Bored yet? Wait, it gets better: the brain waves used…
Trackback by Fibble.org — 7/20/2004 @ 2:18 pm
Not exactly a spectator sport
A swedish company has announced the commercial availability of Mindball, a game in which two players attempt to move a ball. Across a table. Using only their brain waves. Bored yet? Wait, it gets better: the brain waves used to…
Trackback by Fibble.org — 7/20/2004 @ 2:23 pm
This technology could actually revolutionize the mental evolution of mankind. From a mental perspective, there is hardly a greater challenge than to think of absolutely nothing for even just a few minutes at a time. I’m quite serious, have you ever actually tried it? Close your eyes for 30 seconds and try to think of absolutely nothing (no pictures, no sounds, no memories, and btw thinking “empty mind, relax, think nothing..nothing..” is still thinking. So 99.99% of you will fail this miserably- I guarantee it. So what does this prove? It proves that we are actually not in control of our minds as we so erogantly think we are. It proves that our mental abilities are far from fine tuned. But what purpose does it serve to think of nothing? If we were to spend a lifetime trying to think of nothing what would we have achieved? Isn’t high intellect the result of thinking a lot? Well sort of, but mostly, no. What makes the genius is the ability to focus, to concentrate on a single subject with abyss like depths, reaching further than most other humans, and from those depths high intellectual realizations are thus attained. The keypoint here being that concentration is the master key. One who has enough mind control to concentrate on absolutely nothing, has just as much mind control to think (or meditate) upon any one particular subject and perceive its truth far beyond the capabilities of others. But meditation is very boring stuff for most people, and our western societies get easily bored with just sitting around trying to empty the mind of all the garbage that floats about. We like fast & visible scientific results… well, Zen Masters, perhaps now science has facilitated your teachings and more importantly, motivated western minds to truly work their minds.
Comment by Sadhu — 7/20/2004 @ 2:25 pm
Not exactly a spectator sport
A swedish company has announced the commercial availability of Mindball, a game in which two players attempt to move a ball. Across a table. Using only their brain waves. Bored yet? Wait, it gets better: the brain waves used…
Trackback by Fibble.org — 7/20/2004 @ 2:34 pm
Not exactly a spectator sport
A swedish company has announced the commercial availability of Mindball, a game in which two players attempt to move a ball. Across a table. Using only their brain waves. Bored yet? Wait, it gets better: the brain waves used…
Trackback by Fibble.org — 7/20/2004 @ 2:35 pm
dude… the ball is rolling to you! bubbling sound hahahaha, now it’s not!
Comment by stoner ball — 7/20/2004 @ 2:40 pm
With 19K for the game I’d be relaxed
Now if I could only do this with women.
Comment by mango_ferret — 7/20/2004 @ 3:41 pm
If you’re trying not to think of anything, wouldn’t that be what you’re thinking about? :’)
Comment by Anonymous — 7/20/2004 @ 3:43 pm
Interesting technology, but poor game design. You should be able to do more to thwart your opponent. I think each player should be given a loaded revolver. That would add a dynamic new element to the game. For instance, you can point the gun at the other player and make him more nervous. Or you can fire into the air, or shoot one of his family members, and this would make it very hard for him to remain calm.
Comment by IQpierce — 7/20/2004 @ 3:51 pm
In 20 years we look at this like we look back on pong and go rember when all we had was a ball a lcd screen and 2 Brain wave readers
Comment by Dylan Cruse — 7/20/2004 @ 5:16 pm
sadhu lol
“a lifetime trying to think of nothing what would we have achieved?”
your english here is terrible. “trying to think” is a verb. Your doing something. So the act of trying to think nothing is in fact doing something which totally blows away your argument. Even the act of meditation (perceived as doing nothing) in and of itself may be considered doing something.
What your trying to touch on here is perspective.
This is a great idea this game but the price tag? seriously is that worth it? I see bill gates buying one, with his little monkey boy stevo and them being the only ones rich enuff to afford it and geekie enuff to enjoy it :P
Comment by weo — 7/20/2004 @ 7:30 pm
Perhaps you can make a dot out of the comma in the price ;-)
Comment by italian berliner — 7/20/2004 @ 8:11 pm
I completly agree with IQpierce, whom suggested the addition of new variables to the game (ie a revolver). However, is it safe to assume that if we were capable of enhancing mental activity, via LSD for instance; could we possibly manifiest new functionality within the game? For example, my mouse now has, not only, the ability to move, click and scroll, but it now also has the capability of revealing secret time portals hidden in my right, large toe nail. Can we expect new features such as these in the next release from the manufacturer, or is the lava lamp lieing to me?
Comment by guy — 7/20/2004 @ 9:38 pm
One more question. Has this product been tested with the addition of LCD? If not, the lava lamp and I volunteer to take forth this great challenge.
Comment by guy — 7/20/2004 @ 9:40 pm
What a pathetic game!
Comment by GURPS — 7/21/2004 @ 3:06 am
I don’t see any innovation or interest here. Brain wave detectors are around for some time. The game makes no impression to me. It could have thermometers instead and move the ball towards the colder player. So what?
I don’t even see the importance of the table and the ball. (Rather than justifying the price of the game.) The game could be played on a computer screen instead. In fact, I am pretty sure that given a couple of sensors, any kid that knows a little BASIC could program the game on his PC.
What could be interesting was to have the ability to move an object left-right with your brain and play something like pong or arkanoid on a computer monitor.
Comment by Sling — 7/21/2004 @ 3:16 am
What would be good is a capture the flag type game, the more relaxed you are the faster you get to the flag, when you do the other person would have to get more relaxed to recover but I doubt they could..
Cool game but to expensive, I wonder if I could just buy the sensor and hook it up to the computer, write a program and sell it for £15,000? :)
Comment by Oliver — 7/21/2004 @ 6:21 am
Are you people thick? This system detects the presence and amount of theta waves. This provides a single axis of measurement, positive or negative. In terms of joystick emulation this gives you a single mode of control, like a paddle on the old Atari 2600; no action buttons, no sticks, no shoulder buttons. The best game you could come up with would be the equivalent of Night Driver or Pong.
Since the theta waves are very hard to control at speed this would make for a very slow game. Even if the system were modified to detect the modulation of specific frequencies to control multiple axes, this would still be incredibly slow. It isn’t going to get much better than this.
Comment by Lee — 7/21/2004 @ 6:46 am
“Clams, why’d it have to be clams?!?” – Indiana Shrimp
Comment by BIngo — 7/21/2004 @ 10:02 am
Mindball And The Art Of Telekinesis
Mindball is an experience product, a game where two players control a ball with their brain waves. The player being most relaxed wins the game. The brain waves are detected by sensors attached to the headbands. The sensors (electrodes) are…
Trackback by Dirty Monkey — 7/21/2004 @ 3:25 pm
It is an interesting experiment to apply the competitive spirit in driving one to a deeper level of focus. Meditation is typically not the direct objective in a competitive setting.
If ones ability to reach a certain degree of focus, like his ability to maintain a certain level of excellence in a given physical skill, can be improved by adding competitive encounters to his training program, then this concept may allow him to reach new levels of focus, or to maintain current levels with less daily meditative training.
It is clear that competitive encounters allow one to find new and faster ways to improve physical skills. Lance Armstrong would not ride as hard without competition.
Some who meditate regularly look for methods to make their meditation time more fruitful. Although it may require a few days of adjustment for one who typically meditates alone, the concept that competitive meditation may allow one to discover new depths is compelling.
Comment by Vic — 7/21/2004 @ 4:48 pm
v cool idea, can’t wait for use in cs etc.
Comment by adj — 7/21/2004 @ 6:47 pm
Think you’d have to get drug tested for Valium? That’s a serious winning edge right there. All of us ADD folks probably wouldn’t ever win. My depressed friends get the edge there too. ;-)
Comment by Anonymous — 7/22/2004 @ 9:44 am
Instead of seeing how much of a pot head you are, why don’t they reward brain activity to pronounce the smartest winner.
Comment by billybobthortan — 7/23/2004 @ 1:47 am
Like watching flies have sex
Comment by Anonymous — 8/3/2004 @ 8:43 pm
what if this catches on in the states? will it be a segway into promoting meditation and relaxation in our lives? it seems like the only way to get americans to calm the hell down would be to make a game of it. hence the comments that it’d be more interesting to race for the most active brain…lol. our minds are always active, i think that’s why the point of the game is to slow it down.
Comment by monbaum — 8/4/2004 @ 2:21 pm
To the Press Department
PRESS RELEASE : Inventor writes a letter to the President of the Italian Republic, H. E. Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
” I WILL JUSTICE, IT IS I THE INVENTOR OF MINDBALL !
Press Men,
I will to communicate that the Mindball, presented in to the Festival of Science, that will be held in Genova (october – november 2004) is a my and prof. Ugo Licinio’s invention.
The patent has been registered at the C.C.I.A.A. of Trieste on 30/08/1984, n. reg. 9/82809, as:
“Sistema elettronico predisposto a sostituire nei giochi elettronici i comandi manuali esistenti
con equivalenti comandi direttamente dal cervello” (Electronic system of cerebral controls that takes the place of the manual controls in to the electronic plays).
We are stolen, by fraud, of this invention by a person, later dead in mysterious circumstances in South America, and president of a company in Milan, the CIPA S.p.A.
If You are interested to know more informations and case’s documentation,
call me to 39. 348.7439324
Best Regards, Vinicio de Bortoli
www.mindball.it
Comment by Vinicio De Bortoli — 11/8/2004 @ 8:14 pm
old old old;
http://www.atarimuseum.com/videogames/
consoles/2600/mindlink.html
Comment by nisse — 11/9/2004 @ 8:38 am
Information about sensors
All the information about sensors that you need.
Trackback by Sensors Web — 3/21/2005 @ 8:43 pm
Ooh, I want one! Great site design, btw.
Comment by John — 12/6/2005 @ 9:35 am
Hi
Who can answer my question?
Comment by Keeper — 12/25/2005 @ 10:02 am
Hi! And what became with others?
Comment by Kirill — 4/19/2006 @ 8:46 am
I like to think of myself as a smart girl, but there are a ton who are smarter than me. At least I’m not like Dubbya who has called himself “the Decider”. HAHA - That’s so funny!
Comment by Jordan Capri — 5/3/2006 @ 6:47 pm
hi
Why I can not insert the image into my message?
Comment by Dobraya — 5/27/2006 @ 10:56 am