Since the dawn of time…er…of the modern computer people have envisioned a myriad of methods to interact with PCs. They keyboard/mouse combination has, despite a varied assortment of competitors, become the de facto means of inputting information into a computer. Even for gaming, despite the prevalence of consoles and their nifty ‘controllers’, the old ‘board and mouse have weathered the tests of time. But together they’re rather bulky and cumbersome and at times restrictive. While laptops have consolidated the mouse function into a little pad, others still strive for a replacement without sacrificing functionality. The most discriminating of critics in this respect are PC gamers, who will demand the utmost accuracy and response. So it comes across as somewhat ambitious that OCZ Technology chose to target that audience when crafting the first ‘brain-computer’ interface available on the retail market; the Neural Impulse Actuator.

The NIA is designed to eliminate key strokes and button presses and tracking altogether by interpreting the body’s biosignals and translating them into frags. Nuff said…

Well, not really. In order to understand how it works consider that the NIA accepts input from the brain, facial muscles, and eye muscles through the nifty headband. Users can bind signals detected from these areas to any keystroke, thereby replacing the need for a keyboard. Imagine glancing around the screen, having your on-screen counter-part mimicking those movements. And have you ever wanted to fire a gun by clenching your jaw? The power! Gods among men, I tell you, gods among men...

The folks over at HotHardware.com have put together a great article on the NIA which details everything from the science, to setup, to their gaming experience with the NIA and Unreal Tournament 3. It’s an interesting read for no other reason than to hear them talk about how they learned to control different aspects of their facial movements and even brain activity, something that took weeks to even begin to manage. But the bottom line was that the NIA “isn't a replacement for traditional input methods” but “it is merely a powerful supplement.” Nonetheless, an interesting glimpse of things to come.

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