The Future Of Psychographic Targeting

Emotiv is coming out with a gaming headset that reads the wearer’s mind. In the game, you levitate boulders just by willing them to move. But here’s the part that really caught my attention:

The system doesn’t just lift boulders. It can also detect some of a player’s facial expressions and emotional responses: smile, frown or wink, for instance, and an avatar on screen can do so, too. Grow bored during a battle, and the system can detect ennui and supply a few dragons, or change the music.

Imagine the implications for in-game targeted advertising. If the system can tell, based on the user’s brain waves, whether she’s interested in the game, then it’s not a big step to tell whether she’s interested in the integrated ad. Or, for that matter, whether she’s angered/frightened/excited/moved/aroused by it.

The ad could then change based on the user’s reaction. But more interesting still: the advertiser could pay based on the user’s reaction! Cost per reaction! Cost per arousal! Cost per bathos-lasting-longer-than-two-point-six-seconds!

Do you agree? How far can we take this thing?

image: A poster for the movie Brainstorm, which featured a brain-interface device that looks almost exactly like Emotiv’s.