Feeling tired and a bit sluggish? Or simply looking to boost your productivity? Well the future has a lot to offer. tDCS has been about for over 100 years but recently started floating around on the radar after Sally Adee wrote an article on tDCS for New Scientist, Apparently DARPA have been using the technology to reduce the training time of snipers by targeting the area of the brain associated with object recognition.
tDCS stands for transcranial direct current stimulation and is the process of delivering a constant low level current to a specific area of the brain via small electrodes this increases the plasticity of the brain and in turn makes your synapses fire faster giving you reported “incredible focus and mental clarity”.
Sounds like science fiction huh? Well this year sees a massive leap forward in the technology with Foc.us Labs releasing a commercialy available product in the Foc.us headset allowing anyone with around £150 the ability to have a go.
Marketed as a gaming headset with the tagline “Faster Processor, Faster Graphics, Faster Brain! the Foc.us unit aims to cross boundries between the world of science fiction and reality. It comes complete with the headset, case, sponges (for contact points) and a micro USB cable, it even has a snazzy app available for iOS devices to control the current and duration of each session.
While this technology becoming accessible may pave the way for a brighter future it also raises a whole host of ethical queries. Will it be classed as cheating to use tDCS in exams for instance or on the pro gaming circuit? More importantly is it ethically correct to enhance our minds to what can only be described as superhuman?
Have your say below.
ERMAGHERD! Giveaway?!?! 😉 I want to try this sooooooo bad!
LOL! I need this! ahah
This headset is not the next level of cheating: it’s the next level of technology, and last time I checked, technology hasn’t run for a political office nor was stupidly biased like many authorities today. I for on welcome this headset not only to have that extra something in gaming, but it could also prove useful for many other things requiring concentration, such as studying, track driving etc.
Excelent explanation. I think it is not primary made for gaming, it is for bosting you brain a bit.
Amphetamines seem smarter than shocking your brain. Both though could be absolutely amazing. One could solve or learn anything at all.
Amphetamines are like gross over-use of NOS in cars: use too much of it, you blow the intake welds, or in a human’s case, severely damage brain cells.
The people who chose the name for this device certainly weren’t using at the time or maybe they were just stimulating the sense of humour part..
I will definitely be buying this product when it arrives on shelves for the market. One small problem though, 4th paragraph towards the end, there is mention of an iOS app available but what about an Android app?
Android app is in development as are other API 🙂
focus will release control applications for Windows, Linux and Mac. The foc.us Bluetooth GATT API specification will be released for those who want to develop their own application.
Thanks for the info 😀
Scientists still don’t know much about brains, so I prefer not letting them mess it up again with something so feeble.
Sign me up