Board of Imagination: a Futuristic Mind-Controlled Skateboard

We have already seen skateboards that use electric power to move, which seemed like science fiction not so long ago. But what if there was also a skateboard that could read your mind and move according to your mental commands? No matter how it sounds, it might be more real than you imagine.

American company unveiled the Board of Imagination – the prototype of a mind-controlled skateboard that reads the user’s brain waves and understands in what direction and at what speed to move.

The Chaotic Moon Labs originally developed a skateboard equipped with the sensing device Kinect by Microsoft, which allows the user to turn by gestures.

The skateboard was presented at last year’s Consumer Electronics Show but later broke down. Rather than reconstruct it, the creators decided to go one step further and take their invention to a new level.

How the Board of Imagination Works

The new electric skateboard called the Board of Imagination is built in front of a Samsung tablet running the Windows operating system.

The computer analyzes the signals of a helmet Emotiv EPOC (by the Australian company Emotiv) which allows users to play video games with mental commands, instead of a joystick.

First of all, several rounds of training are absolutely necessary, in which the computer learns to assign the user’s intentions to brain signals received by the electrodes of the helmet. After that, the user climbs on the skateboard, looks at the point where he or she wants to go, and starts moving there at the desired speed of 50 km per hour.

The video posted by Chaotic Moon Labs on their YouTube channel looks fun but probably not enough to convince stakeholders that they will avoid flips.

Anyway, at present, there are no plans to produce the mind-controlled skateboard on a commercial scale.

What do you think about the Board of Imagination? Would you love to ride one or do you prefer more traditional means such as a bike?