VIDEO GAMES

In this video, a mouse runs through a virtual maze derived from a Quake 2 level, by steering a trackball suspended on a jet of air. Obviously the Princeton scientists did this because it's awesome, but the ostensible reason is because it gives them unprecedented access to study the neurological activity of the rodent while it moves around.

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Starting next month, British citizens will be given the chance to watch a number of the country's closed-circuit security cameras in hopes of catching a crime and winning up to £1,000 as a reward. The "game," run by the website InternetEyes.co.uk, lets participants log in online, alerting officials in real time via SMS and/or email.

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First there was the Wii, then Microsoft's full-body-capturing Project Natal grabbed out imaginations. And now -- and not to be left out -- Sony's finalized plans to roll out their own motion-capture system.

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To get rid of the mess of wires from his many videogame consoles, PopSci reader Brian De Vitis decided to repurpose his R2-D2-shaped cooler. The engineering student modified its legs and repainted it to look more realistic. Then he stacked the motherboards from the eight consoles on shelves inside, added a sound system, and rearranged the inputs so he could plug in controllers from the outside. To watch all the gaming action, he added a projector in the rig’s dome, just like the real R2’s.

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Games have long played a role in classrooms, but next month marks the launch of the first U.S. public school curriculum based entirely on game-inspired learning. Select sixth graders can look forward to playing video games such as "Little Big Planet" and "Civilization," as well as non-digital games ranging from role-playing scenarios to board games and card games.

But this goes beyond guiding your virtual settlers in "Oregon Trail" during classroom free time. The Quest to Learn (Q2L) school, based in Manhattan, hopes its guided approach can help students take on the role of explorers, mathematicians, historians, writers and evolutionary biologists.

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When first-person-shooter video games first hit the market, the computer-controlled bot characters that were deployed in multiplayer matches to fill out the ranks ran around like the Keystone Cops. Now, the bots do a bit better, but not nearly good enough for the people behind the BotPrize.

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Very funny, Sony. We get that Microsoft's Project Natal has grabbed a lot of attention with the full-body motion control concept. But you had to take it a step further and tap into our emotions as video game controllers, didn't you?

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After Microsoft's announcement at the E3 conference of Project Natal, Sony unveiled its own version of motion-capture gaming, both playing catch-up to Nintendo's Wii. Using the Playstation Eye camera and a colorfully globe-tipped controller, the new hardware claims to allow true 1:1 motion response.

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Apparently Nintendo executives frequent PopSci.com. Last year we evaluated the Wii Fit and begged for more technical ways to quantify how hard someone is working on the Wii. Yesterday, at the E3 conference, Nintendo did just that, unveiling the Wii Vitality Sensor--a finger-clip heart rate monitor add-on.

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