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Controlling phones with your mind |
axxxr
Joined: Mar 21, 2003
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From: Londinium
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Here is a piece about a Silicon Valley startup neurosky that's working on a technology that allows people to control a mobile device using brainwave sensing.
Thefeature
A Silicon Valley startup is working on a system to give users the power to control a mobile device with the power of thought.
Over the years, science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke has enriched popular culture with dozens of notable quotes, but his most famous line is, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Truer words were never spoken. If you were able to travel back in time to the middle ages and drive a Buick down the road, honking your horn as you passed the ox carts, it's likely you'd be taken for a wizard with the power to make horses invisible. Today, if you were able to control your mobile phone by thought alone, people might think you had telekinetic abilities.
But a company in Cupertino, California, called NeuroSky is proposing to do just that. It's developing a technology that uses electrical signals produced by the brain and eye movement to control electronic devices.
For centuries, people have known that the human body uses and produces electricity. In the 1708s, the Italian doctor Luigi Galvani conducted experiments on animal cadavers that demonstrated how a muscle would contract when an electrical charge was applied to the muscle or the nerve connected to the muscle. He rightly concluded that an animal's nervous system must generate its own electricity in order to send a signal to a muscle to make it move.
The Electric Brain
There was even more to it -- it turns out that animal brains are hotbeds of electrical activity. This can be plainly seen on a device called an electroencephalograph (EEG), which is a medical instrument designed to measure electrical activity generated when brain cells fire signals. The electrical signals produced by the brain are very weak, and signals become extremely faint by the time they penetrate the skull. To pick up these signals, the EEG instrument uses electrodes that are attached to the scalp. Electrodes are typically a messy affair. When I had an EEG test performed 30 years ago, I was given the choice of electrodes dipped in a sticky conductive gel that would have gummed up my hair, or tiny needles to prick my scalp. (I opted for the needles, which didn't hurt a bit).
NeuroSky's technology also uses electrodes to pick up the body's electrical signals, but things have progressed considerably since I went in for an EEG test. The company has a patented electrode called a "dry active sensor" that rests comfortably on the user's forehead and can pick up brainwaves. NeuroSky claims the sensor can be attached to most standard handsfree headsets.
States of Consciousness
The other component of NeuroSky's technology is a digital signal processor to analyze brainwave activity. It's well established that the human brain generates rhythmic electrical signals that are associated with different states of consciousness. During our normal waking hours, our brainwaves oscillate between 7 and 12 cycles per second. This is called the alpha state. When we are especially alert or interested (such as reading this intriguing article) our brainwave frequency increases to between 13 and 40 Hz (the Beta state). Deep relaxation is associated with Theta waves, which oscillate between 4 and 7 Hz, while sleep generates Delta waves of 0-4 Hz.
One of the intriguing possibilities for NeuroSky's technology is a sleep detector. If you were driving a car and started to fall asleep, the system could sound an alarm and wake you up. NeuroSky is working with partners, most notably China's Ziyitong Technology to develop a sleep-detector as well as systems for gaming and Attention Deficit Disorder.
Cause and Effect
But how can you actually control a device using your brain? Part of the answer lies in biofeedback -- training yourself to change the frequency of your brainwaves. For decades, people have been controlling their brainwaves using biofeedback monitors. By attaching electrodes to your scalp and looking at a realtime display of your brain activity, you can learn to change the frequency at will.
The other part of the answer is EOG (Electro-oculogram), or eye movement. While this isn't really using your mind to control the device, it is a fairly automatic way to generate a small electrical signal that NeuroSky's system can measure. The company says it has acquired proprietary algorithms originally developed in Russia that can covert and combine EEG and EOG signals into direction control -- useful for navigating a heads-up communication display in a car perhaps, or for training cross-hairs on a cartoon alien in a video game.
So far, the 17-employee company has received just $1 million from investors, but says it is working on taking in another $3 to $5 million in financing. Until then, if you want to control your cell phone with your mind, you'll have to ask Uri Geller.
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[ This Message was edited by: axxxr on 2005-06-18 02:48 ] |
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Pradhika
Joined: Jan 11, 2005
Posts: > 500
From: India
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I had to go through twice to understand this idea a bit. Phone Control by deed and word are what we know so far. Now the primary thought itself will control it. It may take time. But it sure is another possible surprise.
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Yazan24
Joined: May 29, 2003
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If you have to explain how something works theoretically, then it probably doesnt work in practice.
Quote that. |
MaX3200
Joined: Sep 29, 2004
Posts: 34
From: Mumbai
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the article was interesting...maybe its possible....next time just give us the link instead of copy-pasting it from somewhere.
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antocsm
Joined: Feb 10, 2005
Posts: 65
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I hope that in the process of this development they would figure out a way to charge batteries by using the electricity produced by the brain and muscles.
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carkitter
Joined: Apr 29, 2005
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From: Auckland, NZ
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On 2005-06-18 04:10:08, Yazan24 wrote:
If you have to explain how something works theoretically, then it probably doesnt work in practice.
@Yazan24
Utter nonsense. Tell that to a teacher!
@Axxxr
My K700i's UI is so intuitive, it may as well be reading my mind.
Can't wait to see the A.D.D. application
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Yazan24
Joined: May 29, 2003
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@Yazan24
Utter nonsense. Tell that to a teacher!
Those who can do. Those who cant, teach.
-Kamikaze-
Esato- The first Biased Sony Ericsson Forums
MP3 Ringtones? Oh yeah Laffen killed them. |
axxxr
Joined: Mar 21, 2003
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From: Londinium
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I wonder how you would do a Ctrl Alt Dlt on a windows device with you mind?  ....All sorts of things come to mind! 
[addsig] |
Kryptik
Joined: Jun 24, 2005
Posts: > 500
From: Port Elizabeth, S.Africa
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Any of you ever heard read an ebook called Eastern Standard Tribe by Cory Doctorow? Get it from manybooks.net It paints a portrait of how cellular technology may develop... Of course, those with no imagination probably won't even give the book a read... It's worth a download though, and it's free.
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jeko.uk
Joined: Dec 31, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: south east london
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interesting nice find axxxr
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Kwiksta
Joined: Jul 17, 2004
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They copied my idea 
Tempsonyfreak
Previously --> tempsonyfreak |
Kryptik
Joined: Jun 24, 2005
Posts: > 500
From: Port Elizabeth, S.Africa
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I'd love to control my neighbour's dog with my mind. Infernal barking at shadows... I'm going over there to ask him if he's awake too... And i'm going to knock till he opens the door, to make sure he understands the question. :o)
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Posted: 2005-06-18 03:37
