Capcom has recruited an academic to help develop ideas and techniques on embedding subliminal mind programming into games.

But panic not, it's not as sinister as it sounds. Capcom want to develop subliminal lessons in subject areas that children find hard to understand, such as physics and maths, in structured learning environments that players won't be aware of.

Nipan Maniar from the University of Portsmouth is the academic who will work with them on the project. He is already famous for
developing the cultural awareness game C-Shock.

Mr Maniar said: "The power of games as a learning tool is the great
untapped education resource of our time. I expect many other games companies will get on board when they see the obvious benefits to society of using games as one more tool to educate our young people."

The collaboration was initiated by Capcom after trial testing its new game, We Love Golf for Wii, and finding that seemingly complex calculations about ball flight, trajectory and distance became easier the more a person played the game.

Mr Maniar said that most people learn much more quickly and easily by seeing, rather than by hearing.

"It makes perfect sense to take the seeing and make it part of the doing in a game play environment. The possibilities to use technology in this way are very exciting for anyone who has an interest in education, teaching and learning," he said.

Perfect - who needs school when you have video games, eh?