The head of US gaming company Valve Corporation says a future is fast approaching where video games will use data from people’s brain signals to modify the experience they get – and even a future where people’s minds can be modified by computers.
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The head of Valve Corporation talks about BCIs in an extensive interview. Source: 1 NEWS
Gabe Newell spoke to 1 NEWS about the future of Brain Computer Interfaces (BCIs) – an area he and other Valve employees have been studying for a number of years now – and shared how Valve is working to leverage BCIs in the gaming industry.
Newell admits some ideas may seem incredible, saying some of the discussions he has about BCIs are “indistinguishable from science fiction” – but he says game developers would make a mistake by not investigating BCIs any time soon. . .
To help them do that, Newell said Valve is currently working on an open-source BCI software project, which will allow developers to interpret the signals read from people’s brains using hardware such as modified VR (virtual reality) helmets.
“We are working on an open source project so that everyone can have high resolution [brain signal] reading technologies built into headsets, in a lot of different modalities, ”said Newell.
Valve has worked OpenBCI headsets.
OpenBCI unveiled a headset design called Galea in November, designed to work with VR headsets such as Valve’s Index.
Open the Galea BCI headset design from BCI. Source: OpenBCI
“If you’re a software developer in 2022 and don’t have one in your testing lab, you’re making a foolish mistake,” said Newell.
“Software developers for interactive experience[s] – you’ll definitely be using one of these modified VR headbands to do that routinely – simply because there’s too much usable data. “
That data will generally consist of measurements of the player’s body and brain, which can be used to see if the player is excited, surprised, sad, bored, amused, and scared, among other emotions.
Mike Ambinder, Principal Experimental Psychologist at Valve Corporation, is playing a game wearing an OpenBCI Ultracortex BCI Array. Source: Mike Ambinder / Valve Corporation
The measurements can be used by developers to improve immersion and personalize what happens during games – such as increasing the difficulty a bit when the system realizes that the player is bored.
Beyond just reading people’s brain signals, Newell also discussed the near future of being able to write signals to people’s minds – to change how they feel or to deliver better-than-real-life images in games.
He said BCIs will create gaming experiences much better than a player could get through their “meat peripherals” – like in their eyes and ears.
“You’re used to seeing the world through the eyes,” Newell said, “but the eyes were created by this cheap bidder who couldn’t care less about dropout rates and RMAs, and when it broke there was no way to do anything. repair effectively, which makes perfect sense from an evolutionary perspective, but doesn’t reflect consumer preferences at all.
“So the visual experience, the visual fidelity that we will be able to create – the real world will no longer be the metric we apply to the best visual fidelity possible.
“The real world will appear flat, colorless and blurry compared to the experiences you can create in people’s brains.
“Where it gets weird is when who you are becomes editable through a BCI,” Newell said.
Right now, people are accepting that their feelings are exactly the way they feel – but Newell says BCIs will soon make it possible to digitally edit these feelings, which can be as easy as using an app.
“One of the first applications that I expect we’ll see is improved sleep – sleep becomes an app that you use and you say, ‘Oh, I need so much sleep, I need so much REM,’” he said.
Another benefit could be the reduction or total elimination of unwanted feelings or disorders from the brain, for therapeutic reasons.
Some people who use VR headsets experience vertigo as a result of the discrepancy between what they see and what their body perceives – but Newell said BCIs are so advanced at this point that that vertigo can be artificially suppressed, and that ” it is more of a certification issue than a scientific issue “.
The Valve Index VR lineup. Source: Valve Corporation
Despite several viable uses for BCIs, Newell said he was hesitant to pause Valve’s progress and turn it into a consumer product when the speed of the investigation is so high.
“The speed at which we learn things is so fast that you don’t want to prematurely say, ‘Okay, let’s just lock everything up and build a product and go through all the approval processes, when in six months we’ll have something that can do a lot of other features. would have made. “
Valve also contributes to projects where plastic body panels are developed in exchange for expertise.
“It turns out that game engines are very useful, because they simulate a lot of the information you need to create a simulated hand for humans,” said Newell.
“You can repeat software faster than a prosthesis, so we give them a framework in which to conduct research and work with patients.”
In case you were wondering, a Valve brand cybernetic limb is probably off the table for now.
“Valve is not in the business of creating virtual prosthetics for humans,” Newell said.
“This is what we’re contributing to this particular research project, and that’s why we’re gaining access to neuroscience leaders who teach us a lot about the neuroscience side.”
On the topic of prosthetics, Newell said there are some interesting questions that need to be answered around developing artificial limbs.
‘As soon as you do that, they say,’ Oh, can we give people a tentacle? ‘Our brains were never designed to have tentacles, but it turns out that brains are really flexible. “
Neuroplasticity is a term that refers to our brain’s ability to relearn how to operate the body when something changes.
Neuroplasticity also happens when we learn to use tools – an example is a builder using a hammer for so long that it feels like a natural extension of their body.
Newell gave a personal example of neuroplasticity. He underwent two cornea transplants in 2006/07, and after surgery, a ghost image of some objects was produced in the field of vision between his eyes as a result of the change in color perception.
The condition resolved within a few weeks as his brain adjusted to the new input received from his eyes.
So the future of BCIs sounds interesting, but what about the dark side?
Newell said briefly that BCIs could potentially be used to cause people physical pain – even pain outside of their physical body.
‘You could make people think so [are] hurt by injuring their tools, which is a complicated topic in itself, ”he said.
Game developers can use that feature to make a player feel the pain of the character they are playing as if they were injured – perhaps to a lesser extent.
Like any other form of technology, Newell says its use imparts a degree of confidence and that not everyone will feel comfortable connecting their brain to a computer.
He says no one will be forced to do anything they don’t want to do, and that people are likely to follow others if they have good experiences, comparing BCI technology to cell phones.
“People will decide for themselves if they want to do it.
“I’m not saying everyone will love it and insist that they have a brain computer interface. I’m just saying that everyone will decide for themselves whether there is an interesting combination of function, functionality and price.”
It will also be a daunting task for developers to ensure their BCI products are rigorously tested and secured against breaches.
“There is nothing magical about these systems that makes them less vulnerable to viruses and the like than other computer systems,” said Newell.
“Right now, you have to trust all of your financial data, all of your personal information on your technology infrastructure, and if the people who built those people are doing badly, they will drive consumer adoption off a cliff.
“Nobody wants to say, ‘Oh, remember Bob? Remember when Bob was hacked by the Russian malware? That sucks – is he still running naked through the woods?” or whatever. So yes, people are going to have to have a lot of confidence that these are safe systems with no long-term health risks. “
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