I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a Emotiv Epoc headset thanks to my older brother Pankaj. At first after experimenting with its given interface I came to the conclusion that this entire product was a bit of a scam due to its inaccuracy in reading my thoughts. The interface contains three modes which are the following expressive suite, attentive suite, and the cognitive suite. The attentive suite outputs graphs that monitors you mood, the cognitive suite responds to a given thought, and the expressive suite mimics your facial expressions. These three features are very basic and there is only a limited amount of things you can do with them.
My second day of experimenting with this product and its interface was much more successful than my first. The cognitive suite contains a floating box that represents your brain's thought. It first asks you to record a neutral thought for eight seconds to keep the floating box in one place. It then asks you to record a non-neutral thought to either lift, rotate, or push the box in any direction (your choice). The first time I used this suite I chose to push the box away from me by thinking of constantly pushing a box. I attempted this and the box's response to my "neutral" thought and "pushing" thought was completely out of sync. I did not rule out the possibility of my thoughts being inconsistent and volatile causing the Epoc headset to irregularly respond so I attempted to trick the headset for more consistency. For a neutral thought I decided to add a two to every integer starting from zero. Hence, 0+2=2, 2+2=4, 4+2=6, and so on. It is a simple mathematical calculation which allows your brain to focus on one task and not meander off into a thought cluster. Then to push the box I decided to rapidly wave my hands. Believe it or not waving your hands back and forth is a cognitive task. With these more concrete brain tasks the box accurately stayed in one place when I computed the mathematical calculation in my brain, and it moved away from me when I swayed my hands back and forth. I came to the final conclusion that this product is extremely accurate in recognizing cognition.
Unfortunately, the software development kit costs the consumer 750 dollars. A hacker has put up a series of code called the Emokit to intercept the information the headset sends the USB receiver. The information from your brain is represented by a series of graphs each depicting a sensor on the headset. This means that a certain cognitive function such as adding contains a unique eclectic depiction of these graphs. In the given software, these unique graphs are recognized by your computer every time you add and it outputs the box being neutral. This exemplifies the powerful nature of this piece of technology's potential to recognize a unique cognitive function.
With that being said, a number of feats can potentially be accomplished with this headset.
1) Concentration. With its ability to respond to a certain function, one could easily practice concentration on a task such as reading by using the headgear and reading. When the user digresses away from processing words(recognized cognitive function by unique sets of graphs) a ringer can go off to remind the reader to stay on track.
2) Perfection. With its ability to recognize physical cognitive function an athlete can perfect his golf swing by recording a perfect shot(represented by a unique set of graphs) then continue to mimic this swing by wearing a headset and ringing a bell whenever he perfects his swing.
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