I got a new game controller a few weeks ago which is called the Emotiv EPOC. I want to share my experience and show you how I use it in games hands-free (in combination with different tools).What you should know first: As a US citizen you can purchase the Consumer Edition for $299,-. Non-US citizens have to purchase the Developer Edition for $500,-
One important feature is the built-in Gyroscope. You can move the mouse with a slight head movement.The first day it was somewhat difficult as I haven't been using my neck muscles actively for years. The second day the neck pain got less. As of the third day it got better and better. After more than a month using the Gyro daily for 4-8 hours my neck muscles got a bit stronger.
The next important feature is the Expressive Suite. The Emotiv EPOC recognizes your facial expressions like: Look left/right, Blink eye, Raise brow, Furrow brow, Smirk left/right etc.
They are quite easy to control without much training.
The next important feature is the Cognitiv Suite. You can use 4 actions at once like: think Push, Pull, Left, Right.There are many more you can train. As it isn't that easy I cheated at the beginning. Meaning: when I think Push I tense the tip of my nose. Tense my left/right ear for left/right movement. After a while you think more and tense less. It's not that hard but it requires discipline and regular training.
For the moment I don't have the patience for regular training and wearing the EPOC with sensors can get a little uncomfortable after about 2 hours. So I've been using the device for the Gyro only lately, it works without sensors.
Here's how I control FPS Games.
As mentioned above I use the Gyro to move the mouse/look around in-game.You should know that in many FPS games the Gyro doesn't work out of the box because it's just a virtual mouse. But there's a workaround: the freeware GlovePIE converts the virtual mouse to a real mouse (so the game is led to believe the Gyro was a normal mouse). As a side effect GlovePIE inverts the mouse vertically, to by-pass the invertion I invert the mouse again in the game options.
For the rest of the commands I use Game Commander 3: "Fire" to shoot, "Go" to go forward, "Go back", "Left", "Right", "Jump" etc.
When I play with sensors I use facial expressions: Blink Eyes to click/shoot, Raise Brow to go forward, Smirk Left/Right...
Driving cars without sensors is difficult but I'm searching for a way to map the left/right mouse movement to the A/D keys.
One word of advise: Be very careful when you put on the EPOC as the headband is very sensitive. Mine cracked at one side.