India set up final with Australia

Tendulkar (left) and Gambhir provided the platform for India's win

India are through to the final of the Commonwealth Bank Series after a seven-wicket victory over Sri Lanka.

A 102-run partnership between Sachin Tendulkar and an unbeaten Gautam Gambhir secured the win in Hobart.

India were set 180 to win after Ishant Sharma and Praveen Kumar claimed four wickets each to dismiss Sri Lanka.

Tendulkar (63) and Gambhir (64) guided India home with more than 17 overs to spare, and they now face Australia in a best-of-three-matches finale.

After losing the wicket of opener Perera in the third over, Sanath Jayasuriya and Kumar Sangakkara shared a 50-run partnership before Sri Lanka lost six wickets for 21 runs in just over 10 overs.

But after slumping to 93 for seven, Chamara Kapugedera's 57 helped Mahela Jayawardene's side at least give the bowlers a total to defend.

They began brightly by taking the wicket of Robin Uthappa in the second over.

He survived a dropped catch by Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene off the third ball of the innings from Chaminda Vaas, but departed seven balls later after being caught by Ishara Amerasinghe at mid-on off Lasith Malinga for 11.

Tendulkar and Gambhir brought up India's 50 off 60 balls before Tendulkar dominated a 50-run second-wicket partnership off 63 balls.

He was the first to bring up his half-century from 44 balls, which included nine fours, and after the pair brought up India's 100 in the 17th over and their 100 partnership in 108 balls, Gambhir brought up his 50 off 72 balls.

The partnership was finally broken as Tendulkar was caught at long-off by Chamara Silva off Muttiah Muralitharan at the start of the 21st over to leave India 120-2.

Yuvraj Singh contributed a quickfire 36 off 35 balls before being caught in the covers by Tillakaratne Dilshan off Dilruwan Perera in the 30th over with India at 171-3.

But Rohit Sharma (3no) and Gambhir rounded off the empathic victory. The first match of the final takes place in Sydney on Sunday.

Brain control headset for gamers

Gamers will soon be able to interact with the virtual world using their thoughts and emotions alone.

A neuro-headset which interprets the interaction of neurons in the brain will go on sale later this year.

"It picks up electrical activity from the brain and sends wireless signals to a computer," said Tan Le, president of US/Australian firm Emotiv.

"It allows the user to manipulate a game or virtual environment naturally and intuitively," she added.

The brain is made up of about 100 billion nerve cells, or neurons, which emit an electrical impulse when interacting. The headset implements a technology known as non-invasive electroencephalography (EEG) to read the neural activity.

Ms Le said: "Emotiv is a neuro-engineering company and we've created a brain computer interface that reads electrical impulses in the brain and translates them into commands that a video game can accept and control the game dynamically."

Headsets which read neural activity are not new, but Ms Le said the Epoc was the first consumer device that can be used for gaming.

"This is the first headset that doesn't require a large net of electrodes, or a technician to calibrate or operate it and does require gel on the scalp," she said. "It also doesn't cost tens of thousands of dollars."

The use of Electroencephalography in medical practice dates back almost 100 years but it is only since the 1970s that the procedure has been used to explore brain computer interfaces.

The Epoc technology can be used to give authentic facial expressions to avatars of gamers in virtual worlds. For example, if the player smiles, winks, grimaces the headset can detect the expression and translate it to the avatar in game.

It can also read emotions of players and translate those to the virtual world. "The headset could be used to improve the realism of emotional responses of AI characters in games," said Ms Le.

"If you laughed or felt happy after killing a character in a game then your virtual buddy could admonish you for being callous," she explained.

The $299 headset has a gyroscope to detect movement and has wireless capabilities to communicate with a USB dongle plugged into a computer.

The Emotiv said the headset could detects more than 30 different expressions, emotions and actions.

The headset could be used to improve the realism of emotional responses of AI characters in games Tan Le, Emotiv

They include excitement, meditation, tension and frustration; facial expressions such as smile, laugh, wink, shock (eyebrows raised), anger (eyebrows furrowed); and cognitive actions such as push, pull, lift, drop and rotate (on six different axis).

Gamers are able to move objects in the world just by thinking of the action.

Emotiv is working with IBM to develop the technology for uses in "strategic enterprise business markets and virtual worlds"

Paul Ledak, vice president, IBM Digital Convergence said brain computer interfaces, like the Epoc headset were an important component of the future 3D Internet and the future of virtual communication.

THOUGHT-CONTROLLED GAMING HEADSET Sensors respond to the electrical impulses behind different thoughts; enabling a user's brain to influence gameplay directly Conscious thoughts, facial expressions, and non-conscious emotions can all be detected Gyroscope enables a cursor or camera to be controlled by head movements The headset uses wi-fi to connect to a computer

Australia plans to close doors on African refugees

SYDNEY, Oct 3: Australia will not take any more refugees from Africa until at least the middle of next year, Prime Minister John Howard said on Wednesday, triggering charges of a vote stunt ahead of national elections.

Howard rejected any suggestion of racism, saying Australia’s 13,000-a-year refugee intake was being “rebalanced” from Africa to the Middle East and Asia where the need was more acute.

“It’s not in any way racially based but the programme is just going to be rebalanced, and one of the consequences of that is the reality that there will be no more people coming from Africa until at least July of next year,” the prime minister told public radio.

Howard said it was sometimes difficult for refugees to assimilate into the Australian community.

“It’s just a question of taking a common sense approach and ensuring enough time in order to get people fully integrated into the community,” he said.

Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said that even after July there was no guarantee the numbers would be reinstated.

The decision is a marked contrast to the situation two years ago, when 70 per cent of Australia’s refugee intake came from Africa.

Refugee groups accused the government of picking on African refugees in the lead-up to elections expected to be held before the end of November.

Howard’s conservative government is widely expected to lose the election.

Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul said Howard was trying to replicate the boost he received with a tough stance on asylum seekers at the 2001 election.

On the eve of that election, the government refused to accept hundreds of mostly Afghan refugees whom the Norwegian freighter Tampa had plucked from the Indian Ocean.

“They can’t manufacture another Tampa but they’re trying to tap into the same redneck sentiment that they generated in 2001,” Rintoul said.

Opposition Democrats senator Andrew Bartlett said the government was giving credence to far-right former lawmaker Pauline Hanson, who has accused African refugees of bringing disease into Australia.

“There’s no doubt the minister (Andrews) is in part responding to some of the slurs put out by Pauline Hanson,” he said.

Recent violence involving Sudanese youths has raised concerns in Melbourne about how African refugees are integrating into Australian society.

An 18-year-old Sudanese man died earlier this week after being beaten in an apparent gang attack, creating heated public debate amid allegations Sudanese youths were running amok in suburbs of Australia’s second largest city.

Last year, the town of Tamworth in New South Wales state said it did not want any more Sudanese refugees, but later reversed the decision on condition that increased social services were provided to help them settle.

Andrews said that refugees from Sudan and Ethiopia often had low levels of education and had spent up to a decade in refugee camps, making adjustment to Australian life difficult.

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