Are there pods in that joystick?

A company called Emsense has developed a solution for reading consumers' intellectual and emotional reactions to advertisements and video games.

VentureBeat reports that Emsense pays people to come in and watch TV or play games while wearing a headset that tracks brain waves. With the collected data, the firm believes it can provide marketers and game developers with information on aspects of an offering customers like or don't like.

Electric activity on different parts of the brain is tracked within a fraction of a second, and Emsense calls its solution cheaper, easier and less time-consuming than alternative means for reading these same recordings.

Two lines in a graphical interface denote emotional reactions and intellectual thought, respectively.

A blog post written by a study participant living around the Monterey area, where the company is based, suggests consumers do not apparently mind the testing process: "So I do this thing where I go to this office, I watch television commercials for about twenty minutes, take a five minute survey, and they give me $20. Great deal, really."

Emsense is currently working with "large brands" in the advertising and gaming words, but has not disclosed which. Angel investor Tim Koogle and others have contributed an unspecified amount of funding to the project.