The Tokyo Game Show brought us some suprises this week. Here’s one of the final ’shockers’

NeuroSky, Inc., the leading manufacturer of “wearable” consumer bio-sensors, announced the unveiling of a brainwave-controlled video game at the Tokyo Game Show 2008 in Makuhari, Japan, on October 9 and 10. This exciting and entertaining demonstration is based on a new game concept being jointly developed with Square Enix Co., Ltd. (Square Enix).

The technical demonstration developed with Square Enix operates in conjunction with Windows PC machines and features the NeuroSky commercial headset, MindSet. The recently introduced MindSet is capable of interfacing to a variety of gaming platforms, including PC, console and mobile. It resembles a pair of headphones, with a single electrode contacting the user’s forehead while reading the player’s brainwave information, or EEG data. The headset registers the current state of relaxation or concentration of players, allowing them to perform a variety of actions within the game.

“At Square Enix, we are actively involved in developing a variety of gaming interfaces. I am thrilled to have this opportunity to work with NeuroSky, and apply their advanced sensor technology in this brain-wave controlled game demonstration,” commented Ryutaro Ichimura, Producer at Square Enix. “Although the main purpose of the demo is to test the results of our short development period, I hope it also unlocks new potentials in gaming.”

Stanley Yang, the CEO of NeuroSky, considers the joint development with Square Enix as further validation that brainwave-reading (EEG) technology is rapidly emerging onto the video game scene. “We are delighted to have built such an important partnership with a key industry player to have jointly developed a demonstration based on brainwave-reading technology. The market has been anticipating the introduction of this technology for many years, and the reality of controlling features of a video game through mental control is finally taking root.”

Well that’s just freakin’ cool now isn’t it. Take that, add a set of gloves with accelerometers and force feedback (a la the Wii) and a set of 3D goggles or VR glasses and we’ve got all the game we need at our finger tips. We’re still going to need buttons and joysticks for movement and such but for now it’s a big mental step forward...