What will be the gaming neural interfaces?

Comic slide from the presentation of Mike Ambinder, who is the lead experimental psychologist at Valve Software ( video )

At the conference for game developers GDC 2019, the leading experimental psychologist at Valve Software, Mike Ambinder, made an interesting presentation on Brain-Computer Interfaces: One Possible Future for How We Play about how his company sees the future of brain-computer interfaces. According to the expert, this is a very likely way how people will play video games.

In the near future, scientists will not be able to download the game directly to the brain. First you need to implement a simpler technology, when the brain and the game interact with each other separately, connecting with a fast communication channel.

According to Ambinder, the simplest neural interface provides the traditional version of the control in the game (with hands), but with parallel reading of psychological data. Even at such a primitive level it is possible to develop games of a new type. You can imagine that the development of the plot or the actions of the enemy in the game takes into account the player's emotions (fear, aggression, etc.). Valve calls this "responsive gameplay." Obtaining data about the emotions of players will allow developers to create more exciting games, and in multiplayer, neural interfaces will help to calculate the evil and toxic players that are better to ban.
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With the further development of neural interfaces, you can completely abandon the traditional interfaces such as keyboard, mouse or gamepad. This takes the game industry to a completely new level, allowing you to reduce the delay between decision making and action in the game. Now this delay consists of several components:

1. Rendering pictures and display it on the screen.
   
2. The perception of information and its processing by the human brain.
   
3. Making a decision by the brain.
   
4. Transfer of neuroimpulse from the brain to the muscles, actuation of the muscles.
   
5. Signal transmission from input devices to the program.

A full-fledged fast bus interface eliminates the fourth and fifth components. At the same time, instead of the fifth point, a delay is added to read the brain signal and transfer it to the computer, but the total delay should be reduced, which will speed up the gameplay.

Moreover, thanks to neural interfaces, the built-in constraints of physical input devices are removed, including restrictions on degrees of freedom, number of possible actions, speed of input of actions, bandwidth, and so on. Now it is even difficult to imagine how complex and rich games can be created if we ensure that information is removed directly from the player’s brain.

A player can memorize up to 20–100 combinations of mouse and keyboard commands, Ambinder explained. For some games this is enough, but the restriction remains. And the time of transmission of the impulse from the synapse to the finger averages about 100 milliseconds. According to the expert, this delay can be reduced to 20-30 milliseconds using a brain scanner.



Mike Ambinder said that the neural interface can work in a non-contact way or through the introduction of an intracortical implant into the skull.



Probably, at the first time after the appearance of neural interfaces, they will not be completely “socially acceptable”, that is, most players will not agree to buy a special helmet for reading brain impulses. It can be assumed that initially such equipment will be integrated into virtual reality helmets, supplying it in the kit. So gradually, neural interfaces will gain a critical mass of users, and over time will become a standard function of the gameplay.

At the next stage, you will need to somehow persuade users to install implants in the skull, which now seems like a very difficult task. But over time, gamers' habits will surely change, as will the norms of permissible cybernation. If such an implant will give a real advantage over others by reducing latency, then it may become an absolutely necessary accessory for professional gaming. For Valve, the sale of neural interfaces, helmets and implants can be an additional item of revenue.

In this direction are active research not only Valve, but other gaming companies. Existing equipment already allows you to track various physiological parameters of the player: from synaptic reactions to “galvanic skin response”, gaze direction, muscle tension and posture. Ambinder mentioned experiments with heart rate sensors, adjusting the complexity of the game based on the player's emotions and choosing virtual rewards based on which ones bring the player more pleasure.