Introducing the OCZ Neural Impulse Actuator (NIA)

[NicoOCZ]

Hello everyone,

I'm glad to introduce you to our Neural Impulse Actuator, OCZ's latest innovative product for the gaming market.

Let's start with the retail box.

Front:



Back:



Opened up:



The NIA:



Bundle:



This is how NIA will look like on your desk:

So far, so good. It couldn't be easier to install NIA, just connect it it to your machine with the bundled USB cable and attach the headband to the NIA box. Once done, Windows will recognize it and ask for drivers. Just use the OCZ driver CD to install the NIA software.

Here's how the software looks like:



A very detailed tutorial section is included, explaining how NIA works and how you want to use it:



Make sure you calibrate it before using it on your favorite games, you need to relax your face muscles and focus on the gyroscope to do so:



The so-called Brainfingers section:



The OCZ NIA software comes with some mini games for you to practice controls. I love playing pong with the help of my face muscles



NIA software comes with a few game profiles already included, it's extremely easy to modify the profiles or create new profiles for your favorite games. You can enable or disable NIA ingame any time by pressing CTRL+F12.

I found playing games with NIA extremely enjoyable, it feels almost unreal that you actually control games with neural impulses. It takes some time to get used to, but you sure don't want to miss it after you tried it once

[NicoOCZ]

Now let's create a game profile. I love Crysis, so I choose this popular game for this guide.

The NIA profile setup wizard, just click "Create new profile". You can also import profiles of your friends:



This is where it gets interesting, you can choose which actions you want to fullfil with your NIA:



Choose which impulses you would like to use to control your game. I choose "Muscle":

Now I'd like to bind W (used for walking forward in game) to zone 2 (Z2) and S (walking backward in game) to zone 1 (Z1). This means, if I brace my muscles so strong that the indicator hits Z2, my character in Crysis will move forward. Relaxed face muscles would result in walking backwards. You can increase or decrease the range of these zones as much as you like, so only a minor muscle action would be needed to walk - or an extreme one, it's up to you.

The final step before getting ready to play is choosing the game executable. Just browse to the game directory and choose Crysis.exe

Done! You can now launch the game yourself or have the NIA software do it for you. You can enable or disable NIA ingame any time by pressing CTRL + F12.