Space Invaders is universally recognized as one of the first video games ever created, it remains popular even today having received numerous improved versions over the years. The image of players controlling a ground based cannon in an attempt to shoot down rows of attacking aliens has become a staple of the industry.

Using a technique that retrieves data from the surface of the brain scientists have successfully allowed a 14-year old boy from St. Louis to play the two-dimensional game from Atari just by thinking about it! The boy in question already had grids implanted to monitor his brain for epilepsy and was linked up to a computer program that could connect his thought patterns with the game.

Once connected he was asked to do things such as talk, imagine things and move his hand so that the researchers could correlate these actions with the different signals being produced by his brain. Next the boy was asked to play Space Invaders by moving his tongue and hand before finally attempting to imagine these actions without actually moving in order to successfully play the game!

A researcher at the School of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, Eric Leuthardt said that:

"He cleared out the whole Level One basically on brain control, he learned almost instantaneously. We then gave him a more challenging version in two-dimensions and he mastered two levels there playing only with his imagination."

A similar experiment had been attempted a couple of years previous when Leuthardt and some colleagues performed research on four adults.

“We observed much quicker reaction times in the boy and he had a higher level of detail of control—for instance, he wasn't moving just left and right, but just a little bit left, a little bit right,”

So, how long before we start seeing commercial, virtual-reality hardware released? Probably longer than we might like, but it’s always good to see that developments are being made.

Are you still having a hard time believing the whole thing? Then head on over to LiveScience.com for a video of the study in action!