Jedi mind tricks are a complex business. They won't work on Jabba the Hutt, but they will work on the CN Tower.
At least for the Olympics.
At the Ontario pavilion in Vancouver, a Toronto-based firm is using brain wave technology to let people manipulate the lighting on some of Ontario's most famous tourist attractions: the CN Tower, Niagara Falls and Parliament Hill.
The exhibit opens daily at 10 a.m. but goes live at 3 p.m. in Vancouver, when the sky is dark in Toronto.
People wait up to two hours to sit in a comfortable chair and unleash their thoughts on beloved tourist attractions.
The lighting is controlled by two types of brain wave. Alpha waves – achieved by relaxation – bring the lights on the CN Tower closer to the observation deck, and beta waves – achieved by concentration – cause the lights to spread out and flicker so they appear to be spinning quickly around the tower.
Electrodes on the forehead monitor the brain waves and transmit the data to the tower in milliseconds.
"To relax and clear the mind, closing the eyes is a quick way to get an alpha spike," said Trevor Coleman, chief operating officer of InteraXon. "For beta, you need to focus your vision on something and try to push something with your mind, or look at every single detail on it."
And when there is a break in the mind tricks, the tower relaxes in gold lighting.
Yes, the CN Tower is using its downtime to celebrate the Olympics with the colour Canadian athletes dream of.
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