Jan 8, 2009 12:12 pm US/Central
Mattel Launches Mind-Controlled Ping-Pong Game
LAS VEGAS (CNET) ―
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Mattel's new Mindflex game lets you control the height of a floating ball with your mind as you navigate it through hoops, cages, and hurdles on a circular racetrack.
Mattel/CNET
This is really cool, and really dumb at the same time:
Mattel's new
Mindflex game lets you control the height of a floating ball
with your mind
as you navigate it through hoops, cages, and hurdles on a circular
racetrack. The goal is to move the little orb around the customizable
course as quickly as you can (you control the speed of rotation with a
hand-operated knob). The device keeps score for several people.
Control
is by brainwave. A headset measures the level of your concentration,
and the more you concentrate, the faster a little fan spins that's
blowing the ball up in the air, which controls its height.
I tried a similar, experimental product at a trade show in Sweden about
six years ago. It was a head-to-head (sorry) game in which two people
at either end of a ping-pong-size table tried to move the ball to their
opponent's goal line. The more you "relaxed," the farther the ball
moved. As with the Mindflex, a headset read brainwaves. The trick with
the Swedish game was that you had to relax to win--counterintuitive.
With Mindscape, the more you concentrate the higher the ball goes. That
makes more sense.
I asked Mattel Senior Marketing Manager John Ludwig if future versions
will offer more axes of control--not just height, say, but speed or
lateral direction. "It's all possible, it's just a matter of money," he
said. Mindscape will be $80 when it ships this Fall. He also told me
that future games might respond not just to concentration, but to fear
(wouldn't want to to be the lawyer representing that one), anxiety,
happiness, or frustration. "We're always looking for the newest way to
control things," he said.
The issue I have with Mindflex is that it seems to me like a
solution looking for a problem. It's cool to be able to spin a blower
fan faster by concentrating, but is the game itself engaging? Once the
novelty factor wears off, I'm not sure the replay value of this
experience will be very high.
Mindscap was created using technology from
NeuroSky.
Mattel is also announcing a new digital Web portal for its brands like
Barbie and Hot Wheels. Currently, each toy or game brand has its own
site. This makes sense--for kids loyal to the brands. But for parents
and "gift-givers," it's too much to navigate, a Mattel spokesperson
said. So a new portal, the Mattel Digital Network, is coming soon that
lets grown-ups get the full Mattel marketing message no matter what
Mattel toy they're looking for.
Author: Rafe Needleman writes about start-ups, new technologies, and Web 2.0 products, as editor of CNET's Webware.
(© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.)
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