Neurogames on the Way

According to Palmer Luckey, founder of the renowned OculusVR, the future of neurogaming is practically upon us. Neurogames involve a combination of technologies that incorporate the player’s nervous system into the game itself. The technology may include items such as EEG headsets, brain wave sensing and eye movement tracking devices and heart rate monitors. Throw virtually augmented reality into the mix, and you have a fully immersive gaming experience previously impossible. Developers of PrioVR just completed a successful Kickstarter campaign to produce a full body tracking suit, which enables a gamer to explore a virtual world.

A Handy Way to Pay

Students at Sweden’s Lund University have developed a unique biometric payment system. Now you can ditch plastic, cash and checks and pay by placing your palm on a screen and entering your four digits from your cell phone number. The payment system, known as Quixter, was designed by engineering student Fredrik Leifland, with the aim of making paying quicker and safer. When you place your hand on the screen, an infrared scanner recognizes each individual’s unique vein structure and identifies them. The system is very secure and may help prevent credit card cloning.

Home Lab-in-a-Box

Keeping abreast of your personal health just got a little easier, thanks to San Diego-based Cue. They recently developed a small device by the same name, which can tell you of changes in your body at the molecular level. Cue is a tiny lab-in-a-box that can let you know how you are in terms of vitamin D levels, fertility, testosterone and inflammation, without you having to make a single visit to the hospital. It’s simple to use; you just add a drop of blood, saliva or a nasal swab on one of the specially designed, single-use cartridges and place the cartridge inside the device. It takes just minutes for your sample to be analyzed by Cue’s system if microfluids. Once the analysis is completed, the results are sent to your tablet or smartphone via Bluetooth.