Looking like the shell of a high-tech bicycle helmet, the device reads the user's thoughts for such basic commands as "drop," "push," "pull" or "rotate" and wirelessly translates them into those actions on the screen.

Can Also Sense Emotions

The headset reads the mind's signals from 16 sensor points and a gyroscope orients the device to match the user's orientation.

Based on noninvasive electroencephalography (EEG), which reads neuron activity in the brain, the device can also sense expressions.

More than 30 expressions, such as laughing, smiling or winking, can reportedly be picked up from the electrical activity and transmitted. The company said the headset could allow a user to communicate expressions to avatars in an environment such as Second Life.

Emotiv President Tan Lee told reporters that the device "allows the user to manipulate a game or virtual environment naturally and intuitively." The EPOC is expected to be available later this year for just under $300.

Emotiv is also reportedly working with IBM to apply this computer interface to other applications beyond making an avatar cry or a virtual machine gun fire. The headset will come bundled with a game designed specifically for it, and the company said it will also be available for game consoles.

The company has been working toward the EPOC since it was founded in 2003 by neuroscientist Professor Allan Snyder, chip designer Neil Weste, and technology entrepreneurs Tan Le and Nam Do. The vision was specifically "to introduce the immediacy of thought to the human-machine dialog."

'Coolest Thing'

Mike Goodman, an analyst with industry research firm Yankee Group, said he saw the device some months ago at a demonstration in his office. Although it "wasn't quite ready for prime time" when he saw it, in part because of the tuning it required, he said it was "by far the coolest thing I have seen in the past year."

An engineer put the device on his head and it picked up his emotions, translating them into the expressions of an avatar and pushing and lifting a block on a screen entirely by thinking.

At the time, he added, "the learning curve was steep." To think about doing something, you had to act it out so you could train your brain to think about the actions, he said. After a while, Goodman said, you didn't need to act out, just think.

"It's too early to tell" what the device's impact could be on game machines or other computer interactions, Goodman said. But if it works as advertised, he predicted it would first be a high-end product for the game market and could have "tremendous applications" in medical, military and other fields.

"We're now definitely getting into the Buck Rogers era," Goodman said.