Gaming

Superstruct points to revolutions in forecasting

Mathias Crawford — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 19:07:52 -0700

Description

Superstruct, a massively multiplayer forecasting game is ready to launch. Organized by Palo Alto base Institute for the Future, this could change the way we think about the future. Games are becoming increasinlgy mainstream. We all play games for fun; now we will play games to change the world.

Source

Biologists Enlist Online Gamers

Sean Ness — Fri, 09 May 2008 18:10:09 -0700

Description

Proteins are the workhorses of biology. Among their many functions, proteins speed chemical reactions, enable blood cells to recognize intruding viruses, and copy DNA. The potential payoffs of making proteins that don't exist in nature, such as those needed for HIV vaccines or as catalysts for more-efficient biofuel production, are huge. But making proteins to meet a specific need can be difficult.

Now a leading protein researcher has teamed up with computer scientists to create an online game for developing useful protein structures. David Baker, a leading protein scientist at the University of Washington, says that players will help his lab design new vaccines and make enzymes for repairing DNA in diseased tissues.

For years, biochemists have reengineered naturally occurring proteins by growing them in viruses and single-celled organisms in a process called directed evolution. But researchers need to start with a preexisting protein, which makes it difficult to develop proteins with totally new functions. In a major step forward, Baker recently demonstrated the first algorithm for building novel, functioning enzymes from scratch. But while proteins built from the ground up may have chemical properties unmatched by anything in nature, they aren't particularly efficient.

Biomedical Sciences and Biotechnology

Source

http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/20738/?a=f

NeuroSky: Brain-Computer Interface

Matt Chwierut — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:17:35 -0700

Description

"NeuroSky, chaired by Stanley Yang, is a company based in San Jose, California, United States. Their technology is an example of a "Brain-Computer Interface."

Electroencephalography uses electrodes attached to the head to read the output of brain signals, small electrical neural impulses generated by thought and mental state.

Currently Neurosky's product can only detect the levels of two emotions. How attentive the user is feeling, and how meditative the user is feeling. They are two separate detections, so the user could for example be attentive and meditative at the same time. Other emotions are also planned, including anxiety and drowsiness. Unlike competing products, it can't detect conscious thoughts or facial expressions, but it comes at a much cheaper price.

NeuroSky has created a game to demonstrate their product, which allows players to push objects such as cars or furniture by concentrating on them (attention), and to levitate objects by relaxing (meditation). Movement and view control would still be done using conventional game controls, and which object is pushed or levitated is controlled by where your character is looking rather than based on which object you think about."

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeuroSky (April 24, 2008)

Source

http://www.neurosky.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeuroSky
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQWBfCg91CU

Playing Social-intelligence Game Reduces Stress Hormone By 17 Percent

Melodie McBride — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:16:06 -0700

Description

ScienceDaily (Oct. 24, 2007) — A video game designed by McGill University researchers to help train people to change their perception of social threats and boost their self-confidence has now been shown to reduce the production of the stress-related hormone cortisol.

"We already knew that it was possible to design games to allow people to practise new forms of social perception, but we were surprised by the impact this had when we took the games out of the lab and into the context of people's stressful lives," said McGill psychology professor Mark Baldwin.

Prof. Baldwin and his team -- McGill PhD graduates Stéphane Dandeneau and Jodene Baccus and graduate student Maya Sakellaropoulo -- have been developing a suite of video games that train players in social situations to focus more on positive feedback rather than being distracted and deterred by perceived social slights or criticisms. The games are based on the emerging science of social intelligence, which has found that a significant part of daily stress comes from our social perceptions of the world.

In a 2004 study of 56 students, a standard reaction-time test showed that the game, called the Matrix, helped people shift the way they processed social information. The researchers next conducted several studies to see whether the effects of the game would translate into lower stress levels in a high-pressure context.

In one of their recent studies, they recruited 23 employees of a Montreal-based call centre to play one of their games, which involves clicking on the one smiling face among many frowning faces on a screen as quickly as possible. Through repetitive playing, the game trains the mind to orient more toward positive aspects of social life, said Prof. Baldwin.

The call-centre employees did this each workday morning for a week. They filled out daily stress and self-esteem questionnaires and had their cortisol levels tested through saliva analysis on the final day of the experiment. These tests showed an average 17-percent reduction in cortisol production compared to a control group that played a similar game but without the smiling faces. The cortisol levels were tested by Jens Pruessner of the Montreal Neurological Institute's McConnell Brain Imaging Centre and Douglas Hospital Research Centre, a co-author of the study.

"There are many possible applications for this kind of game," said Prof. Baldwin, "from helping people cope with the social anxiety of public speaking or meeting new people, to helping athletes concentrate more on their game rather than worrying about performing poorly."

The team's ongoing research led to the creation of a spin-off company, MindHabits, whose MindHabits Trainer game recently won Telefilm Canada's Great Canadian Video Game Competition. The distinction has earned the company $800,000 from Telefilm to be matched with private funding for a total of $1.3 million to support the commercialization of the game. The resulting product is scheduled for release this month and is available through MindHabits website.

The new findings appear in the October issue of the American Psychological Association's Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Source

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071023163918.htm#

Children With Autism May Learn From 'Virtual Peers'

Melodie McBride — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:06:07 -0700

Description

ScienceDaily (2008-03-05) -- Researchers are developing an intervention using "virtual peers" -- technology driven, animated life-size children -- to help develop communication and social skills in children with autism. Preliminary findings suggest children with autism produce more and more "contingent" (conversationally relevant) sentences when interacting with virtual peers than with real-life children. What's more, virtual peers are endlessly patient, never tire and can be programmed to elicit socially-skilled behavior.

Psychology

Source

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080229115314.htm