Episode 2-13 – Doggy Diplomas & Brainwave Duels

A swift tap on the nose or a spank on the butt means very little to a dog, but grabbing it by the scruff of the neck for a shake the way a mother dog does makes for a clear reprimand. The Dog Training Academy app is a concise and valuable guide that will take you though such simple lessons, making it easy for you to set the kind of lead that a good dog will want to follow.

For fun it’s set up like a school, with different courses, unlockable badges, and even a report card profile you can share over Facebook, but beyond those tricks you’ll find a down-to-earth guide broken down into easy lessons that highlights each point as you tap them, and supports the main lessons with in-depth videos.

It manages to cover ownership basics, the main commands, several neat tricks, and a guide to correcting bad behaviour without diving so deep as to make you think of it as a career. Spend just a little time with this app and you’ll discover some positive changes you can make right away.

MindFlex Duel

Electroencephalograph machines have been around for more than eighty years, helping hospitals diagnose epilepsy and other brain-related conditions, but now combined with today’s digital world we’re see the technology give rise  to a number of futuristic devices including thought-controlled wheelchairs, computers, and robots.

MindFlex Duel is one of a number of games using the technology for kids. It includes two very simple EEG headsets that each use three sensors to measure brainwave activity. You and a friend put them on, try to focus your thoughts, and the game board compares the signals it receives.

If your signals are stronger than your friend’s, the game board moves a ball towards his/her end zone. If your signals weaken, then the ball moves towards your end zone. The action goes back-and-forth until the ball reaches all the way to one end zone to score a point.

That the ball floats, as if levitated by your mind, is just an illusion. A fan built into the board lifts the ball on a cushion of air and simple electronics moves the fan from one end to the other. The brain signals are real, the “levitation’ is not. All games have to have an element of make-believe, right?

It’s a wild idea, but the game is so simple it can get tired over time, so makers Mattel include a kit in the box to build your own obstacle course. This includes hoops, funnels, and barriers that you can stick into the board and a special mode where your brain signals can also change the speed of the fan, so the ball moves up and down as well as back-and-forth along the game board, making for quite a challenge to get it to the other end zone.

If you’re looking to get your own copy of the game you’ll need to go online to ThinkGeek.com or travel south of the border to stores in the US. Mattel isn’t planning a Canadian release for this year, but perhaps later on.