Can You Hear Me Now?

Ambient Technologies is offering far more than a penny for your thoughts with a new application that can translate thoughts into speech. Imagine what this means for people suffering from ALS (i.e, renowned physicist Stephen Hawking) and a wide range of neurological disorders who have much to say – and now a new way to say it.

Here’s a schematic from www.theaudeo.com showing how it works:

The ability to connect brains and computers has applications in medicine, robotics, defense, security and everyday software. Stretch this a bit further and it’s easy to imagine the effects on retail, marketing, gaming, education, polling, social networking, dating, criminal justice and rehabilitation, training, psychotherapy…anywhere brains and computers meet.

Which is what Microsoft is readying itself for, as evidenced by a patent filed on their behalf in 08.07. They’re working on EEG brain scanning technology that reads only the cognitive patterns of a computer user (filtering out non-cognitive activity). Microsoft’s goal, as stated on its research site, is “…to create brain-wave detection devices costing less than $100 per computer, this could very well lead to a revolution of sorts in PC capabilities.”

Factoring in emotional states of computer users is what researchers at Tufts University’s Human Computer Interaction are investigating. They’re working with infrared technology to visualize varying levels of blood oxygenation and their corresponding emotional states, similar to what functional MRIs yield, without having to lie stationary in a tube. Instead, fNIR headbands are worn in real-life environment.

“New evaluation techniques that monitor user experiences while working with computers are increasingly necessary,” said Robert Jacob, computer science professor and researcher. “One moment a user may be bored, and the next moment, the same user may be overwhelmed. Measuring mental workload, frustration and distraction is typically limited to qualitatively observing computer users or to administering surveys after completion of a task, potentially missing valuable insight into the users’ changing experiences.”

While the work being done at Tufts is still in the investigative stages, there’s a mind-reading EEG headset that you can buy now (I knew you wanted one!). Developed by NeuroSky the headsets will largely be used by gamers at first, however applications with robotics, space vehicles, and prosthetic devices are being played with as well. My guess is that requests for Wii on gift lists might just be replaced by NeuroSky’s MindSets by the 2008 holiday season – let the countdown begin!