How to Control Games with the Power of Your Mind: a VGTimes Interview at CES 2026

Engineers have long been exploring alternative ways to control games, from experimental controllers to gesture-based systems. Among all these ideas, brain–computer interfaces now stand out as the most ambitious approach, allowing players to interact with games directly through thought. During CES 2026 in Las Vegas, VGTimes Editor-in-Chief Rodion Ilin took a closer look at such a device and spoke with Jinglun Uang and Xingjian Yan, representatives of LumiMind, the company behind its development.

VGTimes: Please introduce yourself.

Jinglun Uang: My name is Jinglun Uang. We are a neuroscience company. We develop technology for games using BCI — brain-computer interface. With this technology, a player can wear a cap and control a game character.

VGTimes: So this is direct control through a brain-computer interface?

Jinglun Uang: Yes. This cap is a visual prototype. It reads brain signals, specifically EEG signals, and transfers them into character actions in the game.

VGTimes: How does the technology work? Are these sensors?

Jinglun Uang: Yes. The cap has multiple channels with sensors.

VGTimes: Is the character controlled through eye movement or something else?

Jinglun Uang: You can see these spots on the screen. (Jinglun Uang points to the dots on the monitor while another LumiMind representative plays Elden Ring using only the power of her mind.) Each one has a different flickering frequency, and the cap can read those different frequencies.

VGTimes: And what is the controller used for in this setup?

Jinglun Uang: The player can move the character independently, but there are some limitations. I use the controller to play another character and battle with her.

VGTimes: So you’re fighting against her?

Jinglun Uang: Yes. Sometimes she wins, sometimes I do. It's about fifty-fifty.

VGTimes: These sensors look similar to medical equipment used to monitor brain activity. Is this the same technology?

Xingjian Yan: This is a brain cap. Inside, there are electrodes coated with silver. When we put the cap on the user’s head, we inject a suitable liquid, usually water-based, to ensure good contact with the scalp.

VGTimes: So nothing is implanted into the body?

Xingjian Yan: No. We only record brain signals through the skin. Different brain areas generate different signals — visual areas, frontal areas, and others. We use specific regions to decode movement intention or visual evoked potentials.

VGTimes: So this is close to medical EEG technology?

Xingjian Yan: Yes, it is similar. But it is non-invasive. We don’t need to implant anything; contact with the skin is enough.

VGTimes: So the player just thinks: go forward, turn left, turn right?

Xingjian Yan: There are different control methods. What you described is movement imagination. Its precision is sometimes not high enough. In this demo, we use SSVEP — steady-state visual evoked potential. It uses visual information and provides much higher precision, which fully meets the requirements for this kind of control.

VGTimes: That’s why the player looks at specific points on the screen?

Xingjian Yan: Yes. Each point flickers at a different frequency. For example, a ten-hertz light or a fifteen-hertz light. We detect the corresponding oscillation in the visual cortex and identify which point the user is looking at. That’s how control works with SSVEP.

VGTimes: And how do combat actions work — for example, attacking with a sword?

Xingjian Yan: We don’t rely only on EEG signals. Directional movement is controlled separately, while EEG is used for commands like attack or other actions.

VGTimes: How soon do you think this technology could be used by gamers in everyday life?

Xingjian Yan: Right now, we are using devices designed for scientific and clinical research. They are expensive and require complex setup. Our goal is to simplify the system so that a single compact device can handle all control.

VGTimes: Which games can currently work with this technology?

Xingjian Yan: We need to program the control system for each game. In principle, we can adapt almost any game, but it requires additional development and modifications to simplify the gameplay and make it suitable for this type of control.

VGTimes: So you need to create a dedicated mod for this technology?

Xingjian Yan: Yes, exactly.

VGTimes: How many games already have such a mod?

Xingjian Yan: At the moment, we have two games working with this technology: Elden Ring and Black Myth: Wukong.

VGTimes: Looks great. Good luck with your technology.

Xingjian Yan: Thank you.

Article by Rodion Ilin and Fazil Dzhyndzholiia.

VGTimes has been operating since 2011 and during this time has attended dozens of exhibitions and festivals where our journalists gathered numerous exclusive materials. For example, in 2019 we attended a closed Cyberpunk 2077 showing at gamescom, in 2017 we prepared a photo report from WG Fest, in 2020 we were at Central Asia's largest gaming event CAGS, and we also visited "IgroMir" several times, where we saw Hideo Kojima and other famous developers. Last year, we traveled to the land of the rising sun for TGS 2024, where we were amazed by the scale of the event. And this year we saw with our own eyes one of Asia's major gaming exhibitions — ChinaJoy in Shanghai and gamescom asia in Bangkok.