OCZ Neural Impulse Actuator - TechRadar UK

Trust us, you’ve never experienced anything like the OCZ Neural Impulse Actuator.

In fact we’d wager that you’ve never come across anything even vaguely like it. Personally, I’ve never seen anything quite like it, and I’ve seen some odd things in my time.  

A unique gaming experience

Indeed, between vests that make you feel as though you're having your ribs tickled, and chairs that rumble when you're shot, it's all too easy to dismiss this as another ridiculous gadget.  

The difference here is that it can potentially give you the edge to make you a better gamer. The Neural Impulse Actuator is something more commonly seen in a sci-fi film.

Essentially, it interprets various signals from your brain and facial muscles, turning them into a signal that you can control your games with.

In real terms this means you can turn a corner, pop to zoomed sniper mode and headshot an opponent halfway across the map, all without actually touching a key or clicking a mouse button.  

Mind control

Which, by the way, is exactly what one of the team here did after a few minutes of play. This leads on to another point about the device – you improve the more you use it. You essentially train your brain to make the most of it.

It’s like unleashing a muscle you didn’t know you had – tricky to start with, but it gets easier and easier. To start with this means that you over exaggerate things, grimacing when trying to shoot and overdoing it.

But even after a few minutes of playing Pong in the driver screen (of course, that’s with just our minds) subtle movements were possible. This isn’t a replacement for your keyboard and mouse; it’s more an accompaniment to them… at least in the short term.

Simple to use

To begin with, you probably only want to map a single event to your games, but as your confidence improves you'll be able to do more and give your hands a break. And as the NIA can speed up response times (200ms to click fire, 100ms to think it), it means you’ll be more efficient at shooting before getting shot.

We got to use the device for an extended play in the wonderfully frenetic Unreal Tournament 3, and the buzz you get when you knock up your first frag is every bit as stunning as it is scary.

‘I just killed him with my mind’ will trip off your lips with your first few kills, but you’ll soon get over the awe and focus on the insanely quick fragging. We’re still grinning thinking about it.

This is one of the most interesting developments for computers that we can think of, and we’re eager to get another one in the TechRadar bunker so that we can try out all manner of games to see what’s possible.

I just want to free up some keys on WoW, while others are getting excited about driving their beloved car games hands-free.  We’re impressed with what we’ve seen so far – much more testing soon!