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Entertain me — what to buy?
Do you need a complete multimedia experience? Relax in the multimedia pod
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For £50,000 you can buy the new Ovei home cinema and game pod designed by the Formula 1 motor racing team, McLaren Applied Technologies. With flat screens, touch control, media servers and games consoles of your choice, you can relax in air-conditioned luxury. But it is too small for real-time socialising, so you’ll only be able to mix with virtual friends. Read more about this on Website 3.1.
Or is this the end of the games console?
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As more people have fast broadband connections, experts have been predicting the rise of cloud computing, where all of our computer programs and data will be stored on a central server owned by a company such as Google and accessed virtually. This will be ideal for streaming gaming. All of the processing will be done on an external server, thousands of miles away. The player can then log into the server, so they will not need an expensive games console or computer, just a connection to the Internet and an input device. They will be able to play any game, not just the ones for the console they have bought, and interact with other players in MMOs (massively multiplayer online). Read more about this on Website 3.2 and decide whether you think this could mean the end of the games console.
What about using your brain?
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The Emotiv EPOC headset is the first Brain Computer Interface (BCI) device for the gaming market, and its designers claim to have already mastered its use in thoughtcontrolled games. Soon, you could be required only to ‘think’ to operate a video game. Read more about this on Website 3.4.
59 Unit 1 Living in a Digital World