This IBM programmer can control a BB-8 droid from 'Star Wars' with his mind

Joshua Carr, a lead engineer at IBM, decided to take Sphero's excellent "Star Wars: The Force Awakens"BB-8 app-powered droid and take it a step further with the ability to control it with his mind. 

It's just as Jedi as it sounds. 

To make it work, Carr turned to the Emotiv Insight, a consumer headset that can read your brain waves, plus some under-the-hood plumbing from IBM's cloud computing platform.

He says he had to train the Emotiv Insight to "read" his brainwaves and translate it into motion for BB-8, but it works now.

Here's the best part, in GIF form:

And the full video:

Since this is a video released by IBM, it doubles as a sales pitch for the IBM cloud's ability to help developers quickly build applications that power smart objects.

In the video, Carr explains that when it comes to the technology of "Star Wars," he'd rather have a droid or a hyperspace-capable spaceship than a lightsaber.

"Can you imagine giving a lightsaber to somebody? They'd chop their arms off," Carr says.  

SEE ALSO: Why Disney CEO Bob Iger told his top 400 executives to 'have a love affair with technology'

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