LONDON, England (Reuters) -- If you think video games are engrossing now, just wait: PlayStation maker Sony Corp. has been granted a patent for beaming sensory information directly into the brain.

The technique could one day be used to create video games in which you can smell, taste, and touch, or to help people who are blind or deaf.

The U.S. patent, granted to Sony researcher Thomas Dawson, describes a technique for aiming ultrasonic pulses at specific areas of the brain to induce "sensory experiences" such as smells, sounds and images.

"The pulsed ultrasonic signal alters the neural timing in the cortex," the patent states. "No invasive surgery is needed to assist a person, such as a blind person, to view live and/or recorded images or hear sounds."

According to New Scientist magazine, the first to report on the patent, Sony's technique could be an improvement over an existing non-surgical method known as transcranial magnetic stimulation. This activates nerves using rapidly changing magnetic fields, but cannot be focused on small groups of brain cells.

Niels Birbaumer, a neuroscientist at the University of Tuebingen in Germany, told New Scientist he had looked at the Sony patent and "found it plausible." Birbaumer himself has developed a device that enables disabled people to communicate by reading their brain waves.

A Sony Electronics spokeswoman told the magazine that no experiments had been conducted, and that the patent "was based on an inspiration that this may someday be the direction that technology will take us."

Source: CNN
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Isn't that awesome?

wouldn't there always be a risk in using something like this though.....it could easily damage your brain. no?

That means that all video games are gonna be so addicting......jeezuz. I honestly don't think that it's such a good idea.

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Originally posted by Chaotic_Shield
That means that all video games are gonna be so addicting......jeezuz. I honestly don't think that it's such a good idea.

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Originally posted by may73alliance
hmm, what about that playboy game they just realesed, lolol

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Wow that’s really dumb, man like I don't want to smell or taste my games! There real enough. Now if they had a virtual reality that was affordable then that would be kool.

I would also think in some was would addict and it may even hurt your brain after long periods of use. Also who knows people could tamper with it and come up with come kind of mind manipulating device. Like make people go insane by giving them a taste or feeling that they know there not doing that that moment.

It’s scary what this could do.