New moves from Playstation (Image: Kiyoshi Ota/Getty)
Helen Knight, technology reporter
You're running through an abandoned laboratory when suddenly a zombie leaps out at you from behind a door. With one quick flick of your wrist you slash the zombie with your virtual knife, and then you stare at the screen and use your thoughts alone to will a cabinet to fall on top of him.
This kind of video gaming isn't quite here yet, but it's round the corner. Sony's new highly sensitive motion-sensing controller, the Playstation Move, launched this weekend. It's one of a series of devices in the pipeline that promise much more immersive gaming than is possible on today's consoles.
Like the Nintendo Wii, the wireless wand uses internal sensors - a gyrometer and an accelerometer - to measure the angle at which the device is held, and the speed at which it is swung.
But to increase Move's accuracy, a light-emitting diode on top of the device is tracked in three dimensions by a camera near the TV. Game reviewers have given it the thumbs up so far, saying that it's much more sensitive to finer movements than the Wii controller.
Microsoft will launch its own motion-tracking device, Kinect, later this year. It uses no controller at all: a depth-sensing camera senses your body's movements. In June, New Scientist reported that Kinect technology could also find uses in other settings, such as burglar alarms.
Motion-sensing is just the beginning, however, as future games could be controlled by our thoughts alone. Companies such as Emotiv and NeuroSky, both based in California, have developed headsets that use electroencephalography (EEG) to detect thought patterns that can be used to control a game. New Scientist wrote about the potential of these headsets in 2009.
Neurosky's headset comes bundled with a game called Neuroboy. "You can relax to levitate an object, or concentrate to set it on fire - which is very popular," the company's Tansy Brook told The Observer.
Presumably these mindreading headsets would work for seriously disabled and paralysed people? They should be rushed into production asap if so. I can think of a couple of people I know whose quality of life would be vastly improved even by access to a video game like this, let alone software specifically made for their needs.