Summer 2008, I interned at Demiurge Studios, a video game studio located in Cambridge, MA. I chose this particular internship because of the project I would be working on- a game that allows players to control the main character's actions with their minds.

We worked with a headset developed by Emotiv, which uses EEG and other sensors to pick up a user's engagement levels and facial expressions, among other things. A user can also train the headset to associate certain thoughts patterns with certain actions.

In a demo by Demiurge at GDC (Game Developers Conference) 2008, players go through a level where they're trained to scare away spirits by clenching their teeth, lift rocks and bend trees with only their thoughts. At the same time, the color and music of the demo level reacts to their engagement level.

Image of the demo from a New York Times article

In my internship, I helped with the software engineering of the game. I dealt directly with aspects of connecting data from the headset to the game. In addition, I also played the game often and gave some design feedback based on my findings.