CeBIT 2008: OCZ NIA Reaches Mass Production

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OCZ has been demoing its Neural Impulse Actuator (NIA) for a while now, as we first saw it at Computex last year but now, after goodness knows how many years of testing and development, it's finally ready for mass production.

This should make it the first brain-computer interface (BCI) device available on the market. Ryan Pertersen, CEO of OCZ Technology, commented:

"Advances in hardware and software allow today's games to offer consumers an exceptional entertainment experience, and we wanted to take the next step by immersing gamers into these environments with the innovative new NIA. The NIA radically changes the ways that gamers can interact and control elements within games, and can be configured in a matter of minutes for any game that is already published or will be released."

As mentioned in previous coverage, the NIA doesn't remove the need for a mouse to control games, but all the rodent is used for is aiming, so the criticism is a small one. OCZ claims that the NIA is far faster than any mouse, as there is no delay between, for example, thinking shoot and the computer receiving the command to fire your gun. Of course with the device costing $300 to retailers, on the street pricing is likely to be pretty high so we can't see too many of these popping up at LAN tournaments any time soon.

Link:
OCZ press release.

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