Customer Reviews

Star Wars Science - Force Trainer

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

This is a great introduction to brainwave biofeedback. I am a neurofeedback trainer and just purchased thus product. I think some of the negative reviews may be based on an improperly set up system, you've got to read the instruction manual first. You cant just put batteries in it and turn it on. I have not read a review where anyone mentions calibrating the unit. Before you use it the first time you must calibrate it, or you will not get accurate results when you try to go through the training modes. The calibration has you adjust the fan speed to make the ball hover at a very specific level in the tube this way the game knows when you have passed the goals it sets up for you. The other point is making sure the sensors are correctly positioned on the head and no hair is trapped under the sensors. The unit has a display that indicates when the sensors are not making positive contact or the base is not getting a good signal from the headset. These are essential points if you want the device to function accurately.
I have also read some reviews where people think it doesn't read brainwaves at all but just goes through a preset pattern, this is definitely not the case, I can only assume the unit was not set up properly. The company that makes the brainwave technology is called neurosky, check out their website neurosky.com to get more info on the technology and other more sophisticated products they sell.
Brainwave feedback, more commonly known as neurofeedback is a powerful technology used to train people to consciously control brainstates and is used to help people with adhd, depression, peak performance, stress reduction etc. We will soon see this type of mental training hitting the mainstream where it is used to help people lead more productive and fulfilling lives. This type of mental training will become as common as physical exercise when people recognize the many benefits of keeping their brain tuned up. Great product and fun too!

We were very excited to receive The Force Trainer as a gift. I'm all for bio-feedback and have paid for EEG therapy for our son who has ADD. Unfortunately, it does not work as advertised and appears to fit in the catagory of "you see what you want to see." Five family members (adults and children) used the product and had the same result: no matter what your state of mind, the trainer advances you through the first "Padwan" level automatically. Each phrase and ball movement is identical from person to person. It seems all it takes is a live person to make the ball move up and down.
The "Jedi Knight" and "Jedi Master" levels were similar: the ball and voice seemed to proceed in either a pre-programmed or a random pattern. There is no way to tell whether your brain waves are affecting the ball's movement or whether it is a programmed random change in the fan speed. You should be able to check this with the "free play mode" where ball movement and light indicators are supposed to reflect your brain wave patterns. However, in our unit the ball stayed in the middle position no matter how hard we "concentrated" or "used our feelings." The lights only blinked on and off in a regular pattern.
One other minor point: while it was cute at first to hear Yoda quote lines from the movies, he grew tiresome after the fifth time he quoted the same line, "Reach out with your feelings! Use the Force. Do or do not, there is no try."
All in all we were VERY disappointed in this item. And would highly caution everyone to stay away from it. It is overpriced at best and intentionally deceptive to children at worst. My son was so proud to achieve Padwan, I didn't have the heart to tell him it worked the same for everyone. They all got frustrated and quit at the Jedi Knight level as no amount of concentration or relaxation could move the ball in a predictable way.
The Trainer must measure some sort of brain activity or skin conductivity, however, it does not work as advertised. I do not see how the manufacturer will avoid some kind of consequence for putting this out with the claims it makes. I suppose they can say, "Not everyone is cut out to be a Jedi."
I am sure some will use the toy and see exactly what they want to see. They will thrill to hear Yoda and R2D2 verbally pat them on the back. If this item sells, as it surely must with the slick marketing and idea that "you too can be a Jedi Knight", I believe it has more to do with P.T. Barnum ("There's a sucker born every minute") than The Force.

This is all that my son asked for for Xmas or his 9th birthday. At the time we asked him, it was well over $100. But he kept asking & it got decent write ups so the search began. I purchased his for just around $75 and it was a good deal at the time, I see that now on Amazon it goes for half that now. Such is life!
So he opened it last night and is still wearing the wireless headset this morning. He is intregued! The adults found it interesting but not for long. We adults can be finicky! But my 9 yo loves it, and that's all that matters. Whether it actually measures the beta waves in your brain or it's just completing a circuit, he doesn't care. It seems to work for him though. He can make the ball go up & down at will, at it was intertaining to hear his baby brother shout "up!" "up!" as big brother made it go up. Same with down.
All that matters to me is if it puts a smile on my son's face, and it does. He loves Star Wars and he loves this! I gave it 5 stars because if you ask my son, it is perfect. And that's the audience it was meant for.

I first heard about this toy about a year ago - in articles on EEG and new, creative uses for EEG training (generally referred to as neurofeedback). To be honest, I wasn't aware that it had been released and came across it at Costco, which is currently selling it for just $33 (really)! So, I thought I'd buy one just to fool around with it - especially since I'm quite familiar with neurofeedback and also have my own eeg machine to use of home-training. While the "real" EEG device is far more sophisticated than this toy, I understood the premise behind how the Force Trainer works.

As neurofeedback requires patience and multiple attempts before you can begin driving your own brainwaves (especially since you don't "feel" anything), I was prepared for this to be somewhat difficult. To begin, I let my boy try it out first (kids usually respond quicker than adults, especially at first) and he was able to use "the force" within ten to fifteen minutes - now, he can do it much faster. So, after seeing his success, I gave it a try. Again, it was difficult at first but, with practice, I too was very successful!

I strongly suspect that some of those who have left negative reviews have done so because they honestly don't know what to expect and give up too quickly. At the moment, I'm looking for information on what frequencies are being trained (again, I suspect beta waves - probably those in the low beta range [SMR]). Assuming the SMR (sensory motor rhythm) is being trained, a relaxed but focused state is required. It's also possible that slower brainwaves may also be used by this toy (particualarly alpha waves) as those indicative of a relaxed state. I've got to look around a bit more to find out what the Force Trainer uses for their target brainwave(s). My recommendation is that if you are not having success with this toy, keep trying as you will eventually be successful (and have a lot of fun, once you are).

You put the headset on your head...make sure the contacts are in the right place(even fit a 8 year old's head). Then its easy in the first level. Just to start counting by 2's to make the ball move up the tube(will not be that easy in later levels). Our house is crazy and someone would wait until the person had the ball pretty high up and then say something funny and it was always funny to see the ball just drop from lack of concentration.

Well I had one for about 3 weeks before I took it back for the money. It was fun for about 2 days then even with 6 people in the house it sat pretty much unused for a couple weeks. That said there are 3 levels. The first level even the 8 year old beat. Second level was pretty cool and was the one that was the most fun. Third level was just to hard (understandably) for anyone in the house to beat even at the end of 3 weeks. This was still cool because it gave something to shoot for.

For the $130 this thing was in the store it was not worth it unless you have people over often. Then it would be a great conversation piece/toy on the coffee table. Very sturdy no real parts to loose and very close to five stars if nothing else because it seems the first of a kind. The ball just goes up and down the tube though. I will try the Mind Flex that seems a little more entertaining and less expensive hopefully next month.

Great product. Definitely worth playing with.

I read some of the reviews here and I was skeptical how well it would work. I just received it today and put in some fresh batteries.

The headset is a bit small for my big head. Thankfully, it was little plastic extenders along the side to lengthen it.

My girlfriend and I both started playing in Freeplay Mode, and we were both able to control the ball - moving it up and down depending upon our concentration level.

Let me repeat that, WE WERE BOTH ABLE TO CONTROL THE BALL. The toy works as advertised. It was definitely our concentration levels. There was no randomness too it. If I relaxed the ball would go down. If I focused on the ball and concentrated, it would go up.

There are three difficulty modes: Padawan, Jedi Knight and Jedi Master. Each mode has 5 trials. Yoda's voice (very authentic sounding) will instruct you on which level to hover the ball at (1-3). During some trials, he will instruct you to move it from 1, then to 3 and then to 2. It can get quite tricky.

Once you finish a trial, the ball will drop down. Now comes the part that confused me and is my only complaint; the instructions were not to clear about this part: when you finished the trial (ie, the ball drops down, R2-D2 gives a cheer and the next level LED light turns on) you have to click on the headset to start the next trial. It doesn't automatically go to the next trial. I had expected it to go to the next trial once I finished the first. Instead, I just sat there concentrating wondering why the ball didn't go up anymore.

Overall, this thing is AWESOME and it WORKS AS ADVERTISED. Perhaps the people who didn't have the same experience had a defective toy.

I'm 18 years old and my friend and I, instead of studying for exams, spent 2 hours on this thing. It took me 20 minutes to get it to do what I wanted, but you're absolutely incorrect if you think this thing is random. It takes exactly what Yoda says, having a calm mind. Seriously, you just have to focus really hard on the section of the tube you want it to go to and if you're capable of maintaining that focus it'll work. I read about it on several scientific websites. It involves the device reading the excitement of your brainwaves. When it's in the right spot, you subconciously say "that's right" in your head and it'll stay there if you can keep focused. It'll also go up to the very top level if you focus very hard on something else, generally to the point of "daydreaming". When I thought of tons of random things though like going from staring at the ball to thinking "basketball, chocolate, girls" the ball would drop. If the lights are blinking on the device, that means that the probes don't have a good connection to your skin.

This is a really cool toy for a kid. This is the future of toys. I waited to give it to my son after his birthday party... you can't just open it out of the box and master it and didn't want everyone crowding him because it's not that type of toy. It's raising and lowering the beta wave output of your brain just by thinking differently, which we don't consciously do. That is we don't link it normally to any activity (except a heart attack!) until you start to use this toy.

I must note that at first my son did his best (masters all 3 levels and all 5 sublevels) right before bedtime or right after waking up. He'll use his hand as a focus point, raising it, lowering it, etc.; when a friend is around he's learning to do it and ignore distractions. He now can even do pretty well while his sister is making fun of him.

It's teaching him concentration, and to not react as much to outside interferences. He actually plays differently in some situations; he's not distracted as much at all.

This device gives feedback on your mind, so yes, it does "read" your mind as much as a simple device can. It detects beta levels, the easiest to detect and most common ones that don't need intrusive sensors. If you are the excited type or anxious it'll peak the ball at the top. If your brain is on overload it won't work. If you are taking any stimulants (especially ADHD drugs) this won't work, you'll peg it. Interruptions play havoc. If you are really relaxed (artificially) it won't do anything. If you are taking "beta-blockers" this won't really work quite right either.

For those adults with problems, c'mon and think for a second: adults produce more beta waves than children (look at the intended age) and some are more stressed than others so don't be surprised if you can't control it right off the bat. I put it on freeplay and was talking with my wife and it'd get pegged. You need to be calm, the contacts need to be clean and your skin clean, and you need to be alone without distractions and clear your mind. I mean clear it.

This isn't telekinesis. This is a beta-wave feedback device.

Besides being a toy, I wear it while coding or data mining and it's interesting to "hear" the machine move depending on what I'm concentrating on. (Get a 9v transformer, I chew up the batteries by doing this)

I can see this turning into a multi-person game someday soon.

My suggestions: Buy the 9v transformer. If the headset doesn't make a difference if it's on or off, *it's broken*, it should flash on the base and the headset if there's no contact. Make sure your skin is clean, no lotions. Clean the contacts off with something gentle and not oily.

There are some good reviews out there, so I'm only writing one to weigh in on the side of "it really works". I can clearly trace the connection between my mental state and the 'levitation' of the ball; I'm by nature skeptical and scientific, have a degree in cognitive psych, and have experimented some with meditation, so I don't think I'm being fooled by a random state generator. Even more clearly, if someone interrupts or distracts the user, the ball drops instantly. The machine seems to clearly pick up on your state, and doesn't work as well when you're tired or anxious. On the down side, it takes 6 AA's, and 3 AAA's, and if you use rechargeables, it eats them up in a few days of fiddling with it. You'll need to read the manual carefully to understand what the flashing lights on the front mean, as it can be frustrating to try unsuccessfully with it, when the lights indicate "no good sensor contact" instead. The reports here that the machine would turn on and off randomly are completely unlike what I've seen.

Two thumbs up. Way cooler and a better learning tool than 90% of the toys out there.

So let's get this out of the way first. This "toy" really does work. Anyone who tells you it doesn't has not done enough (or any) research. The company that partnered to make this toy is NeuroSky, who manufactures the most widely used EEG (electroencephalogram) brainwave readers on the market. Professional researchers have been using NeuroSky tech for a long time. They wouldn't use it if it didn't work. Also, because this is an actual brainwave reader/neurofeedback device, it must be properly calibrated and set up in order to work properly. You have to make sure all three electrodes on the headset are touching bare skin and have to run the setup sequence. It's actually very easy but I could also easily see how an excited impatient kid (or adult ;) would skip it completely thinking "it will just work". Well, it won't "just work" - this is a brainwave reader, not a Hot Wheels toy. This is an interesting product because it's actually pretty amazing tech (the headset and chip) dumbed down to play a simple game (raise or lower the ball in a tube by varying the speed of a fan set into the base, thereby raising or lowering the ball to one of three heights). I paid twenty bucks for the one I got (that was a few days ago) and they're already back up to thirty five bucks.

I am 32 years old and have had ADHD my entire life. I was lucky enough to have parents that paid enough attention to catch that I had it at an early age (back when nobody knew what ADD or ADHD was, in the 80's) and went through quite a list of different therapies in attempts to help to control it. As an adult I have continued to research ADHD heavily and tried a lot of different approaches to dealing with having it.

If I'd had this toy when I was a kid, I'm certain my ADHD problem would have been much less dramatic. The reason I say that is that this literally measures how much concentration you are putting into the act of trying to raise or lower the ball to the proper position. It does this by reading the beta waves (one of several types) that your brain puts out. After only three days of having this toy I can already tell that my ability to concentrate has noticeably improved. After I finish playing with this (I'm using it for about 30 minutes a session so far) my thoughts are noticeably clearer and I can focus and concentrate much more precisely and easily.

The reason why this is helping is that "neurons that fire together wire together". A more Joe The Common Guy explanation of this concept is that in order for you to have a thought (or thought sequence) neurons (brain cells) have to fire together to assemble the necessary neural responses and signals to body parts to execute whatever action you're trying to execute (or mind state you're attempting to achieve or maintain). It's more or less (in a simplified manner) the same idea as doing a certain physical exercise over and over. The more times you do a jumping jack, the better you get at doing them. It's the same concept for brain states or mental actions/thought sequences. A neurofeedback device gives you the ability to monitor your brain's activity in real time and actually work with that information to consciously change your brain activity to match whatever you're attempting to do. So it follows in logical sequence that regular brain exercise (so to speak) will result in a better functioning mind.

Is it going to cure your kid's ADD? No, probably not. Will it help? Yeah I would definitely say so, since one of the biggest obstacles to any approach to ADD aside from medication is keeping the patient's attention on something consistently enough that they want to do it over and over - enough to yield a noticeable result. This should definitely do that. Also, it's actually directly exercising the part of the mind that is responsible for the patient holding their attention on one object.

If on the other hand you're the OTHER thing I am - an adult interested in learning about brain activity and neurofeedback as a hobby - this is also a good thing to get your hands on. There are many hacks listed out there on the Net for this toy already, including one that (with some very minimal soldering and modification) decodes ALL the data the headset is picking up - meaning all of the brainwaves it can detect. If you're semi-seriously interested in doing more technical research (which this toy has completely gotten me hooked on) then NeuroSky sells a headset specifically meant to read a huge range of brain signals for under a hundred bucks, which is insanely cheap for what it does.

The only other thing specifically worth noting is the construction. The base and tube the ball hovers in seem on the low-decent end of the spectrum - provided your kid doesn't whack it against the marble counter hard, it will probably hold up. On the other hand, the headset is pretty flimsy stuff. Note also that the headset is definitely meant for a kid's head, not an adult's. In short, if your kid is prone to throwing their toys when they have a tantrum, it will probably only take one or two really hard throws against a solid wall for one of the sensor arms on the headset to possibly break. I have no idea how durable the brainwave sensor chip in the top of the headset actually is and I'm not about to break mine to find out :)

So in conclusion, if your kid has enough patience to want to try out easily the coolest toy I've ever seen, (and it's less than forty or fifty bucks) then go for it.

If you're interested in neurofeedback or brainwave readers, give it a shot - it's definitely gotten me hooked on the idea.