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You’re used to send your favorite smileys to the other people you chat via the instant messaging application and if you are an Internet addicted user you’ve remembered the symbols combination for those smileys. But wouldn’t it be much easier and fun to let the other person know your feelings without using hands and memory? Let’s say the computer knows when you are happy, can identify feelings, and sends a smile automatically via the instant chat window. It is possible if you have an Emokey, let me tell you how.

There is an advanced technology that can be used with specially designed headsets and that works similar with the other brain-controlled gaming headsets we’ve featured in previous articles. Emotiv developed this technology based on non-invasive electroencephalography to analyze the user’s individual electrical brain activity, and differentiate between the conscious thoughts and non-conscious emotions. The user can control several computing functionalities with the brain.

EmoKey is a tool designed to integrate expressive, affective and cognitive sectors into any application and works together with the EPOC neuroheadset. To use it with your Yahoo Messenger for example, you’d have to wear the headset and it will enable the translation of your brain events into keystrokes combinations. It even allows you to save profiles defining how detections are mapped to keystroke combinations, and share them with friends so they can use them too. It works both with chat applications where it can identify feelings, as well as with video games.

The Emotiv EPOC headset uses sensors to detect your brain’s electric signals, understand your thoughts, identify feelings and express them wirelessly via your computer. It also integrates 14 electrodes for best sensor positioning, a gyroscope to provide positional data for cursor and camera controls, advanced wireless technology to remove wires, and a Li-Ion battery for up to 12 hours of use.

In gaming you could manipulate the characters, adjust content, project facial expressions in real-time including winks, smiles and grimaces, and other things.

(Thanks for the tip, Miles Belanger!)