OCZ Neural Impulse Actuator (NIA)

[DrMrLordX]

Anyone got an inside track on the limitations of this device? It looks interesting, but how many different keystrokes or key combinations can you realistically configure? It'd be fun to use this for typing and possibly even GUI navigation.

Also, is it going to be $300 as most sites are reporting or $199 as Anandtech reported?

 

[tommo123]

i love the idea of this thing but seems to good to be true. it says it reads your brainwaves but then another part of various articles mention your facial expressions. does that mean i have to make a constipated face in some scenarios?

I would love for a future version of this to remove the need for keyboards and mice altogether but i see it dissapointing us all. Just like the powerglove. That thing was nothing like they showed in 'the wizard'! :frown:

 

[DrMrLordX]

I knew a guy who had a powerglove, and he mostly used it as a prop in LARPs years after its release. Hopefully the NIA will be more useful.

And yes, I really wish this thing could completely replace keyboard+mouse. Application-specific (or OS-specific) support for the unit would also be nice so that, instead of having to translate brainwaves to keyboard/mouse commands for the computer to understand what you want to do, that it could use brainwaves directly to drive interaction between the user and application.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Hmm, looks like a few sites are beginning to take pre-orders on the NIA:

http://www.google.com/products...r&btnG=Search+Products

Nothing in stock yet, but the price looks much lower than the $300 reported by many.

What I have to wonder is: how will this product stack up against the two competing products coming out this year? One of them (I forget who makes it) boasts the ability to handle up to 30 distinct commands issued by the user through a neural interface. Pardon me for being pessimistic, but the equivalent of being able to punch 30 different keys with your mind (or 30 different simultaneous key combinations or however it works, not sure if you can execute more than one of the unit's commands at a time) doesn't strike me as being all that great when you're competing against over 100 keys on a keyboard and two or three buttons on a mouse.

If that's the best the market has to offer this year in the way of neural interfaces, I may be forced to pass. I really wanted something that would allow at least typing with the mind. Actually I wanted more than that, but perhaps I am overly ambitious.

Any OCZ reps on (ryderOCZ?) to give us more data on this thing?