The First-Ever Brain-Controlled VR Game Gives You the Power of Telekinesis

Earlier this year, we reported that Boston-based startup Neurable was readying brain-computer interface technology that would be both fast and accurate enough for playing games in virtual reality. It has now made good on that promise: at the annual computer graphics conference, SIGGRAPH, Neurable has showed off the world’s first mind-controlled VR game.

"In the game you’re a child, you wake up inside a cell, and you’re trying to escape a government lab," explains Neurable CEO, Ramses Alcaide, to IEEE Spectrum. "You actively pick up objects with your mind, you stop lasers with your mind, you turn a robot dog into a balloon animal. It’s a completely hands-free experience, you don’t use any controllers." You can see the game being played in the video above, from Upload VR.

The small game is expected to form part of a larger one, that is set to be launched for the growing VR arcade scene in 2018. To find out more about how the interface technology itself works, read our Neurable article from March.