elias wrote:
wat i dont get is what can you do with this data? i dont know about brain patterns and waves
Well, for example, the US military has been experimenting with allowing pilot to control certain functions of their planes using thought instead of traditional control methods (The joys of the Discovery channel
).
Basically it runs like this. Someone thinks of turning left, and 30 or so sensors stuck to their head monitor the change in brainwave activity and a copmuter makes the decision that they are thinking of turning left. Needless to say this is
not an exact science. A comparison could be made with very early voice recognition software. Plus of course the computer isn't actually reading their mind, it's comparing the brainwave pattern to a numerous amount of previous patterns gathered when the person was thinking left (ie it's deduction by comparison).
To get this to work on a average user level you need to overcome two main things.
a) It has to operate unobtrosively (Do you
really want to stick on electrodes before you use the computer?
).
b) It has to be accurate (Nobody needs to think of opening their mail and the computer deleting it).
Needless to say it will be a
long time, if ever, before the technology becomes viable. To put this in context some of the most widely respected visionaries thought we'd be using voice recognition techology instead of keyboards by now and the computing industry is still years away from making that happen.
In a nutshell, it's a nice dream, but it's not practical or achievable by anyone who doesn't have a great deal of patience and several university research departments working for them.
