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A new gaming headset, which can read the interaction of neurons in the brain, will go on sale, later this year.

The Emotiv EPOC a high-fidelity brain computer interface for gamers will be available in late 2008 for $299. "It picks up electrical activity from the brain and sends wireless signals to a computer," said Tan Le, president of US/Australian firm Emotiv, the BBC reported. "It allows the user to manipulate a game or virtual environment naturally and intuitively," she said.

The headset is capable of reading more than 30 different expressions, emotions and actions. Facial expressions that can be detected include smiling, laughing and winking. The headset can also detect excitement, meditation, tension, frustration and cognitive actions such as push, pull, lift, drop and rotate (on six different axis).

Le says the emotions of players can translate to the virtual gaming world. "The headset could be used to improve the realism of emotional responses of AI characters in games," she said. If you laughed or felt happy after killing a character in a game then your virtual buddy could admonish you for being callous," she explained.

"This is the first headset that doesn't require a large net of electrodes, or a technician to calibrate or operate it and does require gel on the scalp," Le said. "It also doesn't cost tens of thousands of dollars."