Perrikaryal, a gamer who holds a Master’s degree in psychology with a special focus on vision, has used a brain imaging device to control characters in games using just her thoughts.
Electroencephalography (EEG) is a method of picking up the electrical activity of the brain using electrodes placed on the scalp. The electrodes pick up the small electrical impulses generated by the neurons in the brain. And this is where a gamer, going by “Perrikaryal” or Perri, has done something extraordinary.
Generally an EEG is commonly used in the medical field to diagnose and monitor conditions such as epilepsy, brain tumours, and sleep disorders. It can also be used in research to study brain activity during different mental states, such as sleep, meditation, and cognitive tasks.
And now, it can be used to control the actions of game characters.
Twitch streamer and gamer
The brains behind this is a 20-something Brit, Perri, who is not only a psychologist but also a popular streamer on Twitch.
She utilised an EEG imaging device to connect her brain to the game Elden Ring, which allowed her to control the character through her thoughts alone.
This was achieved by attaching sensors to her head which picked up on the electrical signals produced by her brain, which were then mapped to correspond with the controls in Elden Ring.
Perri explained in her Twitch stream, that the sensors must be kept wet with saline solution to remain effective.
A gaming work in progress
Perrikaryal has not yet mapped out all of the game’s controls, so she does have to pick up the controllers for some actions in the game. But so far, she has trained the EEG to recognise specific brain patterns and bind them to the attack button. This is via a Bluetooth brain scanner she uses in conjunction with coding to connect to various games.
Perri also displays her brain activity for her gaming fans as she plays different genres of games, including horror. This lets her fans see the changes in her brain, which gets really interesting when she gets scared.
During a stream, Perri mentioned that the technology is not perfect yet. “Sometimes the attack command will be activated even when I’m not thinking about it.”
However, it is accurate enough at this stage to slay her enemies.
Perri said that the best visualisation to trigger an attack with her brain is to imagine pushing something heavy forward slowly.
The future of gaming is going to be wild and we are here for it.
