http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/personal_technology/13102397.htmA special headset was placed on my cranium by my hosts during a recent demonstration at an NTT research center. It sent a very low voltage electric current from the back of my ears through my head -- either from left to right or right to left, depending on which way the joystick on a remote-control was moved.
I found the experience unnerving and exhausting: I sought to step straight ahead but kept careening from side to side. Those alternating currents literally threw me off.
The technology is called galvanic vestibular stimulation -- essentially, electricity messes with the delicate nerves inside the ear that help maintain balance.
I felt a mysterious, irresistible urge to start walking to the right whenever the researcher turned the switch to the right. I was convinced -- mistakenly -- that this was the only way to maintain my balance.
The phenomenon is painless but dramatic. Your feet start to move before you know it. I could even remote-control myself by taking the switch into my own hands.
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The very low level of electricity required for the effect is unlikely to cause any health damage, Collins said. Still, NTT required me to sign a consent form, saying I was trying the device at my own risk.
And risk definitely comes to mind when playing around with this technology.
Timothy Hullar, assistant professor at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo., believes finding the right way to deliver an electromagnetic field to the ear at a distance could turn the technology into a weapon for situations where ``killing isn't the best solution.''
``This would be the most logical situation for a non-lethal weapon that presumably would make your opponent dizzy,'' he said via e-mail. ``If you find just the right frequency, energy, duration of application, you would hope to find something that doesn't permanently injure someone but would allow you to make someone temporarily off-balance.''
Indeed, a small defense contractor in Texas, Invocon, is exploring whether precisely tuned electromagnetic pulses could be safely fired into people's ears to temporarily subdue them.
― Wolfcastleee (Leee), Wednesday, 9 November 2005 08:01 (twenty years ago)
Oops, here's more direct video game applications:
I watched a simple racing-car game demonstration on a large screen while wearing a device programmed to synchronize the curves with galvanic vestibular stimulation. It accentuated the swaying as an imaginary racing car zipped through a virtual course, making me wobbly.
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James Collins, professor of biomedical engineering at Boston University, has studied using the technology to prevent the elderly from falling and to help people with an impaired sense of balance. But he also believes the effect is suited for games and other entertainment.
``I suspect they'll probably get a kick out of the illusions that can be created to give them a more total immersion experience as part of virtual reality,'' Collins said.
― Wolfcastleee (Leee), Wednesday, 9 November 2005 08:04 (twenty years ago)
Man, how great would it play a video game where you could control one of your friends as the main character? Ultimate two-player cooperative gaming.
― Laura H. (laurah), Wednesday, 9 November 2005 14:43 (twenty years ago)
And knowing the Japanese, I take confidence in knowing that nothing completely sick or perverted will come out of this new technology.
― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 10 November 2005 05:28 (twenty years ago)
The vast majority of Japanese people are way, way less perverted than people think. Probably less perverted than most Americans I know. While the hentai applications are obvious and will no doubt be implemented at some point by the creepy minority, I think the majority are more likely to use it to control each other in more industrious contexts.
― Laura H. (laurah), Thursday, 10 November 2005 15:03 (twenty years ago)