OCZ OCZMSNIA Neural Impulse Actuator

Pros: Ultra-sensitive, excellent response time. Partial hands free gaming. Cool looking blue LED glow from interface box. This is the future of computer user interface. While designed primarily for FPS games, works exceptionally well with MMOs. Makes Crysis WARHEAD and FarCry 2 a joy to play. As a disabled person, this unit has allowed me to game with all the "normal" folks on the same level.

Cons: Headband Size adjustment design leaves much to be desired. I predict failure of the rubber "bead and band" construction over time. Interface cable exits over the left ear side of headband, resulting in poor cable management while in use. Dermatrodes can become irritating with prolonged use.

Overall Review: Patience is the key here folks. Don't buy this if you think you are going to open the box and start owning your opponents five minutes later. There is quite a bit of tweaking and adjustment required to get maximum functionality here. my complaints here are related to the physical design of the system, rather than the functionality. IT DOES WORK as intended utilizing neuroelectrical impulses and muscle movement. If you have dexterity issues with your hands this is the interface for you. If you are an easily frustrated, instant gratification type, you better stick to the mouse and keypad. The folks on here claiming it doesn't work or requires "grounding" are incorrect. The issues they complain about are easily remedied with proper tuning and adjustment. As proof: I am a disabled veteran with partial paralysis and massive neurological trauma and this unit works just fine for me, even though it is designed for folks with fully functional facial muscles. THANK YOU OCZ

Pros: Well, I don't even know where to start. Let's see. It's black brushed aluminum, it has a bunch of rubber, and it has a cool LED status indicator. The really cool stuff, is after you install the drivers (155mb driver download), strap it on and plug it in. You start out with a basic tutorial. You can read it, or you can spend months online reading through all the forums and learning every little caveat this great product has, which, surprisingly, is very few, but I will get into that later. I calibrated, played pong for a few minutes, whooped the computer, and decided to give it a go, using just muscle reflexes, no brain fingers. Fully adjustable sensitvity, movement, and scale make this thing configurable for almost every person. You have to be messed up in the head or lack some kind of logic thought process to not be able to grasp the concept here. After an hour of use, I am indeed impressed, and I maintain the utmost confidence that I will be able to (next)

Cons: pick this new and exciting instrument up, and utilize it to the fullest of it, and my, abilities. CONS: Not for the instant gratificiation, as noted below. FYI - Alpha brainwaves signify your relaxed brain state, where beta waves signify your excitement of the brain. Its really fun to turn on a song that relaxes you, and watch your brain adjust to it, as it drops the beta and boosts the alpha, and vice versa. The only real con I can think of, is the grounding issue. Too much electro magnetic interference (EMI) causes a bit of noise, as the NIA box acts as a receiver for EMI. To properly ground yourself to it, simply have your hand on the box. Semi annoying, but whatever, take the hand that you would be using for the keyboard and place it here, as with enough practice, YOU WILL NOT NEED A KEYBOARD ANYMORE. You can even assign mouse controls to it (not x,y,z, but buttons). This is truly a very remarkable breakthrough, and a lot of really talented and trained thinkers_

Overall Review: have put a lot of thought and design into it. I don't mind paying the price for awesomeness. Other thoughts: With practice, and logical reasoning, you should be able to manuever, and somewhat- reprogram your brain to output the necessary alpha and beta waves. Anyways. Take your time, really think this through. You are either at the top of your game, and looking for ways to improve your gameplay experience, or you are disabled or handicapped, whatever the poltitcally correct term is, and you want to get back into the game. I give this device 11 eggs. It is true what it says on the box - You have never gamed like this before. Jump on this thing! This is first gen, and the quicker you can align yourself with this, the better you will be in the years to come!

Pros: Design works as stated. Plenty of support (and nice about it too). Lots of uses, just takes an innovative mind to think up implementations of the NIA. Excellent software to sync to NIA, program, and OCZ will update when bugs are found (I got this product early on with many bugs that were worked out in a timely manner).

Cons: I got fairly close to controlling it greatly, except brain waves. I understand the concept of getting used to the product, but for a gamer like me, I am not calm during a game. When I get into a game my mind gets excited and to control this thing correctly, you must subdue the excitement or you get off calibration. I found myself not enjoying games as much since I had to be calm. I enjoy my games through physical and emotional expressions (remember, the NIA is incredibly accurate at brain wave changes and facial expression changes which means emotionally these will change...you must control your emotions to control the NIA output correctly!). The NIA is great at detecting these and interprets them, which is what it is supposed to do, as me wanting to move, shoot, or whatever the response is in game. Why haven't they included some good way of grounding the dang thing?

Overall Review: This product receives 5 eggs for the pros listed above. The NIA simply does not fit well with my gaming enthusiasm and I will not demerit it for my personal preferences. For people looking at getting this product you need to assess two things: 1. Are you willing to put forth the time and effort to controlling the NIA and your output? 2. What type of gamer are you? Are you the gamer that jumps out of the seat at scary moments? Yells obscene remarks at the computer screen? Or do you focus intently by leaning forward and concentrating with all your might to accomplish something? Please take these two things into consideration. The NIA performs as stated and more, but the buyer needs to assess if this would fit the buyer's gamer-type. Otherwise for me, great experience, great product, just not for my type of gaming profile. Good job OCZ, now figure out the exact brain wave patterns/outputs for movement and action desires for each individual ;-)

Pros: I love the software, it is easy to use, and straightforward to create your own profiles for varying games. Additionally the simply fact that this thing actually works blows my mind.

Cons: There is a significant problem with electrical grounding. I believe that these should be shipped with a static wristband, and in the long run(NIA 2.0?) Have a seperate grounding connection. I reccomend anyone that buys them to purchase at the same time a static wristband.(they are only 3 or 4 dollars). The issue is that the static electricty generated on your body unless you are constantly grounded is much higher than your baseline so it becomes difficult to get an accurate calibration. The solution to this is to ground yourself by touching the NIA box itself constantly during gameplay or setup some sort of contact to a seperate ground(Computer case frame or whatever.) Due to the significance and prevalance of this static issue I would think that NIA should at least mention it, and provide some remedies along with the equipment.

Overall Review: I am still just learning, and will leave more feedback after I get some additional practice in. Vist OCZ's forums for up to date information, on current projects and updates. From what I read it seems that they are very close to releasing the 64 bit drivers.

Pros: The NIA does work for me. It took a few days to understand the software setup. There are four "Joystick" windows that allow you to program many computer commands in each joystick mode. Basically, you set different levels via slider controls and then set up the functions you want the different levels to trigger. At the moment, I'm trying to start off simple and have mine set to accomplish the following in a First Person Shoter Game. Fire - Alt Fire - Weapon Select - Jump I use both muscle control and glance control. I find the commands mentioned to be easy to accomplish and work each time. There is one more window that is called the Switch mode and this allows you to set up as many as three commands in this window. The switch setup is for quick reaction commands like shoot or jump in a FPS. I only use one switch command at the moment.

Cons: I agree that the grounding issue is something that you will have to find your own solution for. For me, I simply slide the small NIA box under my pants leg. You do need a little extra hobby time on you hands to get everything just the way you want it.

Overall Review: Great Tech Support but as usual, it's sometimes takes leaving a message for them to get back with you.

Pros: Great Performance, Works great and exactly as described. I'm having fun playing just about any game I can come up with.

Cons: The head band is a bit "cheap" the wire side (left) is starting to split, and neural sensors are hard to reshape. (it came a badly packed from the factory. it was not secured properly and one sensor was deformed) also, a bit complicated to reprogram th interpretation of your body signal.

Overall Review: Extremely hard to learn to utilize it, where it can be superior to a mouse and keyboard configuration. Don't make a mistake thinking that it will do what you "think in your head" this device is designed to pick up your body's neural impulses, and unless you program it to interpret them correctly you will hate the device. learning to control your alpha and beta brain waves is as complicated as learning to run for a first time. so take your time, and relax, it just takes time.

Pros: Inexpensive for what you're getting and pong was never so fun. Unit is constructed of a brushed metal and black enamel aluminum casing. Carbon nanotube filaments that are very sensitive in the headband that is flexible and comfortable. Fun and Borg-like!

Cons: Grounding and emf interference is an issue and noted on the company website. I just keep my hand on it and I will buy a anti-static armband. The glance function is odd and doesn't seem to be consistent despite repeated adjustments. I'm still experimenting with that.

Overall Review: It truly works but is a beta prototype preceding a more refined and finished product. You will have to train young Jedi to use the force. Any deviation in focus causes you to lose control so relaxing and mastering concentration is a great skill to achieve. You will have to learn every aspect of the different functions and to manipulate and alternate between Alpha and Beta state, muscle tension signals without moving your face, and hopefully the glance function will get figured out. You also have to accept that we control them voluntarily and involuntarily. For instance I could not get the baseline down below the green line after a half hour of trying everything, I went into the "Mind Fingers readout" and all the readings were off the chart. I thought "lower" and suddenly they did. It is the subconsience regulating our functions and we merely need to acheive active focused and relaxed focus states at will by experimenting with intention in those states.

Pros: It is cutting edge science to be able to use your mind to control inputs into a computer. When mastered it will have some serious benefits. Imagine in first person shooters, the ability to see and shoot solely on reaction. No keys to press or mouse clicks needed. OCZ is on top of their forums and react quickly to bugs with patches and updates.

Cons: Very steep learning curve. After one week with this I am still in infancy! If you don't have the time and patience then this is not for you.

Overall Review: You will have to weigh the benefits yourself. You will have to go back further than playing your first video game and how awkward that was and relearn it. I got this device because I had a hand accident in which my middle and ring finger of my right hand were damaged due to severed tendons and nerves. I think my hand will be better and functional again before I learn to use the NIA.