Still using a mouse, keyboard, joystick or motion sensor to control the action in a video game? It may be time to try brain power instead.
還在用滑鼠、鍵盤、搖桿、移動感應器玩電玩嗎？也許是該改用大腦念力的時候了。

A new headset system picks up electrical activity from the brain, as well as from facial muscles and other spots, and translates it into on-screen commands. This lets players vanquish villains not with a click, but with a thought.
一種新的頭戴系統，不但接收臉部肌肉和其他部位的電活動，還接收大腦的電力動態，並將這些電波轉換成螢幕指令。玩家不靠點按，而是動念就幹掉壞人。

Put on the headset, made by Emotiv Systems in San Francisco, and when a giant boulder blocks the path in a game you are playing, you can levitate it – not by something as crude as a keystroke, but just by concentrating on raising it, said Tan Le, Emotiv’s president. The headset captures electrical signals when you concentrate; then the computer processes these signals and pairs a screen action with them, like lifting a stone or repairing a falling bridge.
舊金山艾莫提夫系統公司總裁李譚（譯音）說，戴上該公司製造的頭套玩遊戲，能使擋路的大圓石騰空，不必靠按鍵那麼原始的動作，而是只要靠心念貫注就抬起大石。玩家集中意念時，頭套捕捉電子訊號，電腦隨即處理這些訊號，並以螢幕動作配合訊號，如搬石頭或修復倒塌的橋梁等。

The headset is the consumer cousin of brain-computer interfaces developed in research labs and used, for example, by monkeys who manipulate prosthetic arms with thoughts. The monkeys’ intentions are detected by sensors, translated into machine language and used to move the arm. In general, some interfaces use sensors implanted directly in the brain; others use electrode-studded caps.
這種頭套是實驗室研發的大腦/電腦介面的消費姊妹品，實驗室裡，猴子以意念操控義肢：感應器偵測猴子的意向，將其轉換成機器語言，用以運動手臂。大體而言，有些介面使用直接植入大腦的感應器，有些使用裝上電極的頭套。

For humans, Emotiv plans to have its noninvasive, wireless EPOC headset ($299) on sale in time for Christmas, Ms. Le said. With 16 sensors that lightly touch the head, it uses a standard technology, electroencephalography, or EEG, to pick up electrical signals from the scalp’s surface and convert them to actions that control or enhance what happens on screen.
至於人用的頭套，李譚說，公司計畫耶誕節前以299美元特價供應這款非入侵性、無線的E POC頭套。EPOC有輕觸頭部的16個感應器，使用標準的腦波偵測科技(EEG)，從頭皮表面接收電子訊息，將電訊轉換成動作，由這些動作來控制或提升螢幕變化。

To help players master the art of moving on-screen objects solely through concentration, the headset will come bundled with a game, set on a magical mountain, that includes practice exercises, said Geoffrey Mackellar, Emotiv’s research and development manager. “You clear the mind,” he said, and then do 30 to 40 seconds of training, by concentrating, for instance, on visualizing a block lifting from the earth. “On the first or second attempt, you can lift it at will.”
為了協助玩家精通在螢幕上以意使物，艾莫提夫的研發經理喬佛瑞•梅克勒說，他們打算在推出一個魔術山電玩時綁售頭套，魔術山裡就有念力練習。他說，「先將大腦放空，」接著做30到40秒訓練，例如集中念力，想像一塊木頭離地。他說：「試過一、兩次，就能隨心所欲舉起木頭。」

Other, harder challenges follow. In constant feedback, he said, the machine learns more about how users think just as users grow more skillful at concentrating.
其他比較難的挑戰還在後頭。他說，在持續回饋的過程中，使用者在集中念力上熟能生巧，機器才能逐步學習理解使用者的思考。

Many game developers are incorporating the EPOC’s abilities into their applications, Ms. Le said.
李譚說， 許多遊戲開發商正將EPOC頭套能力和他們的產品結合。

The system doesn’t just lift boulders. It can also detect some of a player’s facial expressions and emotional responses: smile, frown or wink, for instance, and an avatar on screen can do so, too. Grow bored during a battle, and the system can detect ennui and supply a few dragons, or change the music. The device tracks a total of about 30 responses.
這套系統不僅可以抬起大石頭，還會偵測玩家一些臉部表情與情緒反應，如微笑、皺眉、眨眼，螢幕上一個神的化身也有此能力。對戰鬥感到厭煩時，系統會偵測到無聊感，送進幾隻龍或改變音樂。系統能追蹤約30種反應。

A chip inside the headset collects the signals and sends them wirelessly to a receiver plugged into a U.S.B. port of the computer, where most of the processing occurs, Dr. Mackellar said.
麥克勒說，頭套內的晶片能收集訊號，以無線方式傳送到電腦U.S.B.插槽上的接收器，由電腦負責處理。

The sleek Emotiv headset is a version of the EEG cap used for decades to record brain electrical activity, said Nathan Fox, a professor of human development at the University of Maryland.
馬里蘭大學人類發展教授納森•福克斯說，時髦的艾莫提夫頭套，其實是另版EEG帽，科學家已用EEG帽記錄大腦電子活動幾十年。

“There can be as many as 256 electrodes at one time in a cap,” he said. ‘The placement corresponds in some rough approximation to brain areas that are underneath the scalp.”
他說：「頭套一次可以有多達256個電極。它們的配置與頭皮下腦區的配置大致相仿。」

Medical-grade EEG caps are used in research to eavesdrop on the brain as it plans motion and to translate these plans, for example, into cursor actions on a screen so paralyzed people can control a computer to write messages.
研究上，醫療級EEG帽主要用來竊聽計畫採取行動的大腦，再將這些計畫，好比說，轉換成螢幕上的游標動作，協助癱瘓者操控電腦書寫訊息。

The Emotiv headset, too, taps the power of the mind, as well as using feedback from muscles, Dr. Mackellar said.
麥克勒說，艾莫提夫頭套也會偷聽腦波活動，而且將來自肌肉的回應加以運用。

“We definitely read brain waves – no doubt about it – but we also read other things,” he said. “In classical EEG, movements of the face and muscles are regarded as noise. But we use some of it, rather than discard it.”
他說：「毫無疑問，它絕對能夠解讀腦波，而且能讀別的東西。對傳統的EEG，臉部與肌肉運動是雜訊，但我們的頭套會加以部分運用，不會全部拋棄。」

Anton Nijholt, a professor of computer science at the University of Twente in the Netherlands who does research on innovative interfaces for games, looks forward to the extra means of interaction that EEG headsets will provide. But he doesn’t think that all consumers will be able to use them to raise mountains.
研究電玩介面創新的荷蘭特文特大學資訊科技教授安東•尼霍特期待EEG頭套提供更多互動途徑。不過，他不認為任何消費者都能以此頭套移山。

“Not all people are able to display the mental activity necessary to move an object on a screen,” he said. “Some people may not be able to imagine movement in a way that EEG can detect.”
他說：「並非所有人都學得會以念力來移動螢幕上的物件。有些人或許沒有能力以EEG能夠偵知的方式想像移動物件。」

關鍵字句

動念力（thought / brain power）就可以玩電玩（video game）。預定今年耶誕節推出的一種新電玩，使用的是腦機介面（brain computer interface），讓玩家（player, user）只需動腦，不必動手，也能在螢幕上移山（move mountain）或剷奸除惡（vanquish villain ）。

當頭皮（scalp）下的大腦活動時，會產生特定的腦波變化，亦即會產生腦電活動（brain electrical activity）， 而新的頭套系統（headset system），能夠接收（pick up）與捕捉（capture）這些電子訊號（electrical signal），並透過電腦，將它轉換（translate）成螢幕指令（command）。

之前，媒體報導最多的腦機介面研究，應該是猴子以念力操縱（manipulate）義肢（prosthetic arm）。頭套的感應器（sensor）捕捉到猴子的意念（intention），將它換成機器語言（machine language），再以它移動義肢。

傳統的EEG帽，將臉部與肌肉運動視為雜訊（noise），而將它拋棄（discard），但新的EPOC頭套，將它們加入反應，達到更能體會玩家心思的目的。

但作者也提醒，新裝置不是人人能玩，因為移動物件靠的是心理活動（mental activity），但有時，EEG對有些人想像移動物件的方式就是感測不出來。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/technology/08novel.html

2008-06-24/聯合報/G6版/UNITED DAILY NEWS 王麗娟 原文請見6月24日紐時周報六版左上