To hack the brain, you need to hack the hardware
The human body—especially the brain—may be the final frontier for hackers. The same curiosity that drives users to open applications, see what makes them tick, and then improve or repurpose them is even more relevant for the brain. Equipment to monitor the brain and its responses is expensive, limiting research into BCIs (brain-to-computer interfaces) to academia and medical research.
However, the gaming market, in which thought control of games is a novel gimmick, is driving the appearance of BCI devices at prices far lower than the tens of thousands of dollars you can expect to pay for medical-research-quality EEG (electroencephalography), which records the electrical activity along the scalp that the firing of neurons within the brain produces. (For more on BCIs, see next issue’s cover story, “Brain-to-computer-interface hardware moves from the realm of research.”)
A new headset, the Emotiv Epoc, sells for approximately $300 and is simple to use: Pull it from the box, connect it to your PC, place it on your head, spend a few moments on the canned exercises that let the headset algorithms learn your brain-wave pattern, and you can begin manipulating virtual images on your PC with your brain. With this type of gear, it becomes feasible to hack your own brain.
