Editor’s note: This is a sponsored story by Greater Helsinki Promotion, but neurogaming is pretty interesting. Join us April 8th for an interesting talk!
The purpose of gamification is essentially to motivate the brain to enjoy doing a task that shouldn’t be entertaining, but somehow becomes fun when reward and a sense of accomplishment involved. Think Farmville. Virtual farming should not be popular, but once they add in that got that sense of accomplishment, you’re hooked.
With the help of some extra technology it’s possible to gamify the basic functions of the brain, like concentration. Consumer brainwave readers aren’t some pie in the sky idea, they’re already on the market, and some can plug into your smartphone.
At ArcticStartup we’ve covered an Icelandic company that’s operating in this field. Mindgames has an app where you have to mentally concentrate to bend spoons to distract the zombie that’s trying to eat your brain. If you’re not concentrating strong enough, the reader will recognize that and the zombie will eat your brain. This is cool technology.
Looking at this technology more practically, there are clear applications within the healthcare, education, and national defense industries that have yet to take advantage of this new tech. It’s said that every 5th person in the world has some brain related challenges (anything from stress to Alzheimer’s disease) so if this industry can provide help, we are talking about huge business potential.
Helsinki should be a natural fit for neurogaming. We already have some of the best neuroscience talent coming out of local universities, and it doesn’t need to be said that we’re one of the top regions in mobile gaming.
To merge these different networks together, Greater Helsinki Promotions has brought in the go-to guy on Neurotechnology, Zach Lynch, the CEO and founder of the Neurotechnology Industry Organization. Join us on Monday April 8th at 17:00 at the new Helsinki Think Company space on Vuorikatu 5.
The event will be moderated by Tiina Zilliacus, the founder of Gajatri Studios. She tells us that she’s coming at neurogaming from a fresh perspective, so she’ll be asking Lynch questions from a business standpoint, including the practical applications of the technology, how far away we are from deploying hardware, the data we’re able to get and so on.
To find out more about the event, click here. And to sign up for the event, remember to email [email protected].
Composition of head outlines image by shutterstock.
