A graduate student at the University of Nottingham has just released a new film which you control with your mind.
Richard Ramchurn, a graduate student from the University of Nottingham, new film ‘The Moment’ is designed to Let you be the director by using your brainwaves.
The film is set in a dark future where – you guessed it – brain-computer interfaces are the norm. The avant-garde style piece clocks in at 27 minutes and is almost complete.
In preparation for its launch, Ramchurn has been screening a short trailer where up to eight people can view a person controlling a short section of the film.
The film works by having the viewer wear a NeuroSky MindWave – the device promised to track your level of attention by measuring electrical activity. The MindWave works on the assumption that activity within a certain frequency range is believed to correspond with attentiveness.
This information is then fed back to a computer which analyses the data to alter the flow of the background music and the editing of the film.
Ramchurn believes this allows the viewer to edit the film either consciously (by thinking about it) or naturally (as the viewer responds to what is happening on the screen). He believes the film allows the viewer to create a feedback loop with the film; with the film changing your emotional state and your emotional state changing the film.
The film follows three characters who interact throughout, and the technology allows the user to switch back and forth between two of its three main plot threads. Ramchurn linked the cuts in the film to the natural flow of the attention data which changes around every six seconds.
This means the user could switch shots every six seconds, over 27 minutes that means there are a possible 100 trillion different versions of film you could watch.
The film represents a novel application of existing brain-wave measuring technology. If similar techniques are adopted for other films how we consume media could radically alter in future.
The Moment will premiere during the Sheffield Film Festival in June.
