We are honored to announce that one of our mind-controlled iOS games, W.I.L.D., is a nominee in the Nordic Game Awards 2012 in the “Best Nordic Innovation” category!

W.I.L.D., which players control using the newly-released NeuroSky MindWave Mobile brainwave headset, is a challenge in which you navigate through 20 dream-like challenges using the power of your relaxation and concentration. If successful, you will put out fires, bend spoons, and create galaxies with the power of your mind!

Read the Nordic Game press release here.

To play our games W.I.L.D. or 28 Spoons Later, which are controlled by your relaxation and concentration, you will need the NeuroSky MindWave Mobile brainwave headset. Click here if you would like to purchase one! And thank you!

Yes, it’s that time of year again! Game Developers Conference 2012 at San Francisco. If you’ll be there, you can try our mind-controlled games, W.I.L.D. and 28 Spoons Later, at the NeuroSky booth in the Expo, which starts Wednesday. Go on by booth #1917 and look for our MindGames logo.

When you’ve tried the games using the new NeuroSky MindWave Mobile brainwave headset, let us know what you think! You can comment here, or on our Facebook page at facebook.com/MindGamesBCI, or you can direct a comment to us @MindGames on Twitter.

We are launching two new sites dedicated to our games, www.28spoonslater.com and www.wildmindgame.com, in time for GDC. Check ‘em out to get the flavor of the games and watch gameplay videos!

I know we covered this Icelandic outfit not too long ago, but I find these games for brainwave readers and smartphones so uniquely interesting. MindGames’ newly released iPhone/iPad game, called 28 Spoons Later, puts you in the situation where you’re captured by a gentleman zombie who would like to eat a dish of brains for dinner, but will only do so with a spoon. The game is controlled by a PLX XWave headset that reads your brain’s focus level. By concentrating, you can bend the zombie’s spoons with your mind and stay alive as long as possible.

MindGames probably has one of the most qualified teams behind any app in the “Games” category in the app store. Of MindGames’ six founders, one is an associate professor of artificial intelligence with a doctorate from MIT, another is a master’s degree holder in neurophysiology of habit learning from MIT, and another is a software developer for mobile phone platforms with 12 years of experience.

By gamifying concentration, players have the incentive to become good at controlling their states of mind when they need to – a useful skill which they can transfer over to real life. In a Youtube video CEO Deepa Iyengar does say it is a good way for children and adults to learn to direct their energies in productive ways. Currently 5.2 million children in the U.S. are thought to meet the diagnostic criteria for Attention Deficit Disorder, and a game like this could help teach prolonged concentration.

CEO Iyengar does hint at such a future where these types of games could be put into more serious practice by commenting, “This game is a first step toward our development of clinically effective mind training games. Such games could be used by psychologists and psychiatrists in medical centers to train people who have problems with attention.”

Here’s a video demonstrating the game:

He will now be working with a team from Intel to find a way to express himself after a deterioration in his health made it more difficult for him to operate his computer.

One of the methods put forward is brain-wave scanning in which a head set will be used to measure the electrical activity in the brain or eyeball tracking. Facial recognition could also be an option and Hawking might grimace or smile to move a computer cursor in a certain direction or remove it with another expression.

Read the full story.

The technology behind the emotion-sensing smartphone is simple: it infers your state of mind from how you use your phone. By analyzing how fast you type, how much the phone shakes, how often you backspace mistakes, and how many special symbols are used, the mobile phone can work out whether you’re angry, surprised, happy, sad, fearful, or disgusted, with an accuracy of 67.5%.

The first demonstration of the technology will be a Twitter client where each tweet is labeled with a symbol denoting the tweeter’s emotional state, but obviously the same tech could be used with email, SMS, Facebook, or any other messaging client. It wouldn’t be hard to pop up a dialog saying “You have written this message while shaking with apoplectic rage. Do you want to save this is as draft and revise it later?”

Read the full story.

By Steve McCaskill, January 6, 2012

Icelandic developers release zombie-themed game that could help treat children with ADHD. Icelandic developer MindGames has released an iOS video game which players control using their brainwaves.

It is a zombie-themed game called 28 Spoons Later – but the developers claim a serious purpose. They say it will help psychologists and psychiatrists treat children who suffer from attention span problems.

While the technology behind the game may be complex, the premise is not. Players have been captured by a zombie who wants to eat brains for dinner, but being the gentleman that he is, he will only do so with a spoon.

The aim is to stay alive as long as possibly by using your mental focus, to bend the zombie’s spoon – Uri Geller style. Brainwaves are detected by using the PLX XWave headset, which is powered by NeuroSky’s technology. 

Brainwave powered games have been on the horizon for a while, and MindGames claims it was the first company in the world to sell an iOS application powered by user’s brainwaves in the form of Tug of Mind, which allowed players to upload a photo of someone they knew in order to turn them into an angry 3D opponent that must be defeated by keeping cool.

Read the whole story.

“Jedis, not Cylons: Changing the relationship between humanity and technology”. Deepa Iyengar, co-founder and CEO at MindGames, talks about people’s relationship with technology and where it could be heading.

By Matt Sakuraoka-Gilman, 5/1/2012

Back in 2007, a bunch of US crazy starts up appeared, who were attempting to make mind-controlled games a reality.

The idea was to sell you a headset that would measure your brain waves, using them to control in-game action.

By 2008, they seem to have disappeared… or did they?

Because Icelandic developer MindGames has just launched 28 Spoons Later, a zombie spoon-bending game controlled by the player’s mind, which uses a PLX XWave headset from NeuroSky (one of those crazy start ups).

Mental note

The game’s conceit is that the player has been kidnapped by a gentrified zombie, who despite wanting to eat the player’s brains will only do so with the aid of a spoon.

The player has to focus in order to bend the zombie’s spoons using only the power of their grey matter to avoid this fate.

“28 Spoons Later is a mind training game, which helps you to train in the important mental habit of focus while having fun,” said Deepa Iyengar, CEO of MindGames.

“This game is a first step toward our development of clinically effective mind training games. Such games could be used by psychologists and psychiatrists in medical centres to train people who have problems with attention.”

The game itself is available as a universal app on the App Store for $4.99 while the headset, currently on sale at $99.99 (regular price $149.99) can be purchased directly from the PLX devices website.

The game is controlled by the player’s brainwaves via the PLX XWave headset, which is powered by NeuroSky‘s technology. In the game, the player is captured by a gentleman zombie, who wants a nice dish of brains for dinner. Luckily for the player, the zombie has perfect manners and won’t eat brains without a spoon. The player must try to stay alive as long as possible by bending the zombie’s spoons with his focus level.

«28 Spoons Later is a mind training game, which helps you to train in the important mental habit of focus while having fun,» — Deepa Iyengar, CEO of MindGames, comments. «This game is a first step toward our development of clinically effective mind training games. Such games could be used by psychologists and psychiatrists in medical centers to train people who have problems with attention.»

28 Spoons Later is available on the AppStore. The PLX XWave headset which connects to iPhone or iPad is available at the PLX website.

28 Spoons Later is a mind training game with an endless number of levels. The goal is to survive, but you won’t. This exciting game helps you develop your ability to focus. Improve your spoon bending skills with the sounds of chilling music and the angry cries of the disappointed gentleman zombie. The game is controlled by your concentration level. The more you practice, the better your ability to focus your attention in real-life situations.