Slow Time With Your Mind
The Goal: Use brain activity to slow time and hit targets with a VR Slingshot.
We used the Muse EEG headband to capture brain activity. It was comfortable and fit nicely underneath the HTC Vive headset. Relative alpha power (7.5 - 13 Hz, commonly associated with relaxation) determined the flow of time.
I had been working on a slingshot mechanic, which seemed like a good fit for this prototype.
Side note: The controller would vibrate more the farther you pulled the ball back, which felt weirdly natural. I think it's because a real slingshot has you pull an elastic strip and the tension would cause your muscles to vibrate.
We used mixed reality to capture demo footage. Here's the slingshot in action.
In the game, players had to hit blue orbs with the slingshot and avoid the red ones. It was nearly impossible at full speed, but if you concentrated just right they would slow down enough for you to hit them.
The game itself got boring quickly, but learning to slow time reliably was a uniquely empowering experience. Over time, users figured out that you could reliably fool the EEG sensors by raising an eyebrow or furrowing your brows.
Lessons Learned: Brain activity makes for a novel user input but consumer EEG devices give you noisy data and are easily fooled.