With Twitter rapidly becoming the medium of communication for the stars, one man has managed to send a Tweet using only the power of his mind.
Working at the University of Wisconsin-Madison biomedical engineering departement, Adam Wilson managed to update his own social networking page using an Electroencephalograph (EEG). The EEG is basically a skullcap that detects electrical activity in the brain, and by combining it with a simple communication interface, the message "using EEG to send tweet," was uploaded.
The system was built by Wilson, his adviser Justin Williams, research scientist Gerwin Schalk and a number of his colleagues at the Wadsworth Center in Albany, New York.
It works by placing the entire alphabet on screen while you think about the letter you want to "type", for example the letter R. As each of the letters blink, your mind concentrates on the R and ignores the rest of the characters. When the R blinks, your brain registers that something has changed and the EEG picks up on that and adds the R to the character buffer.
It's slow work at first, but tests have shown that some people can get up to eight characters a minute. And that's eight more characters than there have been before for sufferers of spinal cord injuries.
"This is one of the first - and perhaps most useful - integrations of brain-computer interface techniques with Internet technologies to date," says Schalk.
I should stop reading what Escapist staff post in the forums, they always make me lose my faith in humanity a little more. It's already bad enough our politicians dick around on their phones while they should be listening to important stuff like fixing the economy, but this...this...wow, I'm done for the day. I don't even want to finish my rant. I'm gonna go beat off then play Grim Fandango while huffing glue to remind me of simpler times, like when Whoppers were a dollar and Johnny Cochran was still alive.
This will be abused by fat people and morons, to give them more of a reason not to use their god damn bodies for anything except to eat and order prostitutes who charge double cause the asshole who summoned them is disgusting. This will not help humanity, but hinder it and though I appreciate all your damn optimism, it's not going to be used for what it was intended for.
Onyx Oblivion: One step closer to a non-verbal society...
Yay, finally the idiots will shut up!
Agreed, except now we'll be able to see into the sordid depths of the minds of those at 4chan. Imagine the horror...
(Off topic, since there seems to be a lack now of true horror games, someone should do a game based on 4chan. That would be the horror to end all horrors... :s)
Nossy: I should stop reading what Escapist staff post in the forums, they always make me lose my faith in humanity a little more. It's already bad enough our politicians dick around on their phones while they should be listening to important stuff like fixing the economy, but this...this...wow, I'm done for the day.
I'm a little taken aback by this. You don't believe that helping crippled people talk online is a good thing?
Nossy: I should stop reading what Escapist staff post in the forums, they always make me lose my faith in humanity a little more. It's already bad enough our politicians dick around on their phones while they should be listening to important stuff like fixing the economy, but this...this...wow, I'm done for the day. I don't even want to finish my rant. I'm gonna go beat off then play Grim Fandango while huffing glue to remind me of simpler times, like when Whoppers were a dollar and Johnny Cochran was still alive.
Nossy: I should stop reading what Escapist staff post in the forums, they always make me lose my faith in humanity a little more. It's already bad enough our politicians dick around on their phones while they should be listening to important stuff like fixing the economy, but this...this...wow, I'm done for the day. I don't even want to finish my rant. I'm gonna go beat off then play Grim Fandango while huffing glue to remind me of simpler times, like when Whoppers were a dollar and Johnny Cochran was still alive.
So people with paralyzing injuries aren't allowed to type on the internet, which is what this is designed for...wow. You're not seeing the big picture. No healthy average person has any use for this.
Yay! Inefficient ways of communication that are SO cool anyway. I think that there is better advancement on controlling shit with your mind regarding the EPOC Headset though. ...and that's a gaming console too.
Fightgarr: Yay! Inefficient ways of communication that are SO cool anyway. I think that there is better advancement on controlling shit with your mind regarding the EPOC Headset though. ...and that's a gaming console too.
Nossy: I should stop reading what Escapist staff post in the forums, they always make me lose my faith in humanity a little more. It's already bad enough our politicians dick around on their phones while they should be listening to important stuff like fixing the economy, but this...this...wow, I'm done for the day.
I'm a little taken aback by this. You don't believe that helping crippled people talk online is a good thing?
I don't see it as helping paralyzed people being able to talk, I see it as another reason for people just to be stupid and lazy, which I'm sick of.
Nossy: I should stop reading what Escapist staff post in the forums, they always make me lose my faith in humanity a little more. It's already bad enough our politicians dick around on their phones while they should be listening to important stuff like fixing the economy, but this...this...wow, I'm done for the day. I don't even want to finish my rant. I'm gonna go beat off then play Grim Fandango while huffing glue to remind me of simpler times, like when Whoppers were a dollar and Johnny Cochran was still alive.
So people with paralyzing injuries aren't allowed to type on the internet, which is what this is designed for...wow. You're not seeing the big picture. No healthy average person has any use for this.
Nossy: I should stop reading what Escapist staff post in the forums, they always make me lose my faith in humanity a little more. It's already bad enough our politicians dick around on their phones while they should be listening to important stuff like fixing the economy, but this...this...wow, I'm done for the day. I don't even want to finish my rant. I'm gonna go beat off then play Grim Fandango while huffing glue to remind me of simpler times, like when Whoppers were a dollar and Johnny Cochran was still alive.
You mean Humaity faith -1 Homicidal rage +1
Congrats! You're one of the lazy people who will be using this.
Nossy: I should stop reading what Escapist staff post in the forums, they always make me lose my faith in humanity a little more. It's already bad enough our politicians dick around on their phones while they should be listening to important stuff like fixing the economy, but this...this...wow, I'm done for the day.
I'm a little taken aback by this. You don't believe that helping crippled people talk online is a good thing?
I don't see it as helping paralyzed people being able to talk, I see it as another reason for people just to be stupid and lazy, which I'm sick of.
May I humbly suggest that a jaundiced eye is in no way better than rose colored glasses.
Fightgarr: Yay! Inefficient ways of communication that are SO cool anyway. I think that there is better advancement on controlling shit with your mind regarding the EPOC Headset though. ...and that's a gaming console too.
Perhaps, but as the EEG is a standard instrument in many hospitals and the technology is only in it's infancy, it keeps up with the EPOC before you include the hefty price tag.
Nossy: I should stop reading what Escapist staff post in the forums, they always make me lose my faith in humanity a little more. It's already bad enough our politicians dick around on their phones while they should be listening to important stuff like fixing the economy, but this...this...wow, I'm done for the day.
I'm a little taken aback by this. You don't believe that helping crippled people talk online is a good thing?
I don't see it as helping paralyzed people being able to talk, I see it as another reason for people just to be stupid and lazy, which I'm sick of.
May I humbly suggest that a jaundiced eye is in no way better than rose colored glasses.
Fightgarr: Yay! Inefficient ways of communication that are SO cool anyway. I think that there is better advancement on controlling shit with your mind regarding the EPOC Headset though. ...and that's a gaming console too.
Perhaps, but as the EEG is a standard instrument in many hospitals and the technology is only in it's infancy, it keeps up with the EPOC before you include the hefty price tag.
So what? You're going to sit there and tell me that people will use this exactly what it was meant for?
So what? You're going to sit there and tell me that people will use this exactly what it was meant for?
Given what it means to be hooked up to an EEG (I've had one), I think it's more likely to be used for beneficial purposes, and again, the technology is in it's infancy.
So what? You're going to sit there and tell me that people will use this exactly what it was meant for?
Yes, because you wouldn't have the equipment unless you DID need to use it. Do you realize this isn't some infomercial Magic Jack product, this is nearly million dollar equipment that could provide the injured better ways to communicate. Next you'll tell me Steven Hawking is lazy for having a computer controlled by his eyeballs.
"This is one of the first - and perhaps most useful - integrations of brain-computer interface techniques with Internet technologies to date," says Schalk.
That's kinda sad. I mean, the technology is impressive, but I would hope there would be something more useful than tweeting in the works.
EDIT: I didn't really think about injured people. I could see a use there, but I don't know how many cases there would be where voice recognition wouldn't be superior.
Nossy: So what? You're going to sit there and tell me that people will use this exactly what it was meant for?
Until they start selling them at WalMart, yes. And I do believe a lazy person would rather type so they can say "lawl i c wat u did thar" than actually have to use there brain to type. I think you're making a problem out of nothing.
EDIT: I didn't really think about injured people. I could see a use there, but I don't know how many cases there would be where voice recognition wouldn't be superior.
Obvious one would be when the voice isn't available. Damage to the spinal chord can easily paralyse muscles used for talking, tracheotomy, a number of possible cases.
Twitter Now Accepts Telepathy
With Twitter rapidly becoming the medium of communication for the stars, one man has managed to send a Tweet using only the power of his mind.
Working at the University of Wisconsin-Madison biomedical engineering departement, Adam Wilson managed to update his own social networking page using an Electroencephalograph (EEG). The EEG is basically a skullcap that detects electrical activity in the brain, and by combining it with a simple communication interface, the message "using EEG to send tweet," was uploaded.
The system was built by Wilson, his adviser Justin Williams, research scientist Gerwin Schalk and a number of his colleagues at the Wadsworth Center in Albany, New York.
It works by placing the entire alphabet on screen while you think about the letter you want to "type", for example the letter R. As each of the letters blink, your mind concentrates on the R and ignores the rest of the characters. When the R blinks, your brain registers that something has changed and the EEG picks up on that and adds the R to the character buffer.
It's slow work at first, but tests have shown that some people can get up to eight characters a minute. And that's eight more characters than there have been before for sufferers of spinal cord injuries.
"This is one of the first - and perhaps most useful - integrations of brain-computer interface techniques with Internet technologies to date," says Schalk.
A video of the setup can be found here.
Source: WisBusiness
Permalink