Like something out of a William Gibson novel (or a Wired magazine virtual reality article from 1998) the notion of mind control instead of joypad control for games has floated across the synapses of SPOnG's news office this morning with a company called NeuroSky's latest prototype.

Trialled with what the Associated Press' Rachel Konrad calls a, "simple Darth Vader game -- a relatively crude biofeedback device cloaked in gimmicky garb", the system takes gamers' brainwaves (if they are concentrated and focused on the correct areas) and uses them to control game-play.

Sounds very much like the Emotiv Systems' hardware that our Joe Chagan reported on (and which cropped up in his Cliffy B interview) from this year's GDC.

Now, SPOnG maybe accused of being Luddite here, but isn't half the fun of games consciously (or in the case of the Wii, accidentally) chucking your controller at the screen having failed a two-foot putt or having been murdered by a pack of wolves while "going west to seek the cauldron of An-Garth"?)

Of course, this doesn't mean that we're against the idea of mind control in games such as Dead Or Alive - thus leaving your hands free to... adjust the contrast or volume.

For more info go to the NeuroSky website.... here.