A YouTuber has developed an ingenious yet painful aim assist that controls his own muscles via electric shocks.
A YouTuber has developed a fascinating yet questionable method to improve his reaction time in e-sports titles: he lets a computer control his muscles, which are forced to aim and shoot via electric shocks in order to achieve superhuman speeds.
The technology behind the pain
YouTuber and hobbyist Basically Homeless, who recently celebrated his 30th birthday, was confronted with the reality that human reaction times continue to decline with age. Instead of accepting this, he decided to solve the problem with a little ingenuity.
His idea: “Hijack” the signals from the brain to the muscles and replace them with faster, computer-controlled impulses.
The setup is complex and consists of several components:
- A PC running AI image recognition software that identifies opponents on the screen.
- A single-board computer (more specifically, a Raspberry Pi) that processes the signals from the software and converts them into commands.
- A medical EMS (electrical muscle stimulation) device that sends targeted electrical impulses to electrodes placed on the player’s arm.
As soon as the AI detects an opponent, it calculates their position relative to the crosshairs and sends a command to the EMS device via the Raspberry Pi.
This triggers a surge of electricity that causes the corresponding muscle in the player’s arm to contract, moving the mouse toward the target—all in a fraction of the time it would take the brain to do so.
Editorial warning
The experiment shown in the video was carried out by a person with in-depth knowledge of electronics and programming. We strongly advise against attempting to replicate this experiment.
Handling electrical current on your own body is extremely dangerous and can cause serious injury, burns, or even death.
The telephone counseling service is anonymous, free of charge, and available around the clock at 0800 / 111 0 111 and 0800 / 111 0 222.
Between superhuman reactions and loss of control
The initial tests were promising but also problematic. The system achieved response times of less than 100 milliseconds, which is well below the human average of around 200 milliseconds and even below that of top professionals (around 150 milliseconds).
However, the method had massive disadvantages: The muscle spasms triggered by the electric shocks were imprecise and painful, which meant that the crosshairs often missed the target. In addition, technical difficulties such as high latency of the Raspberry Pi occurred, which partially negated the speed advantage.
To solve these problems, the system was redesigned: A new graphics card (Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090) solved the latency issues, and an AI trained specifically for Counter-Strike 2 learned to distinguish precisely between friend and foe.
As if that weren’t enough, the YouTuber also developed a “neuromuscular trigger bot” that activates the trigger finger with an electric shock as soon as the crosshairs hover over an opponent’s head.
A painful test in online matchmaking
Because the inventor believes that this is not cheating, as it is his own muscles doing the work, he tested his system in public matchmaking in Counter-Strike 2. He describes the experience as “extremely intense and comparable to a permanent jump scare,” as his arm could twitch involuntarily at any time.
In some situations, the device worked surprisingly well and gave him a clear advantage by reacting faster to sudden opponents than he could have done himself. At other times, however, the system reacted incorrectly to teammates or harmless objects. The YouTuber’s conclusion is mixed: From a technological standpoint, the concept has the potential to reduce reaction times to less than 50 milliseconds with more precise technology. However, according to the inventor, it is completely unsuitable for practical use. The whole thing is too painful and uncontrollable, so he would not recommend it to anyone for everyday use.
