Over the past few days we've been chatting about motion-sensing after Google pulled their little April fool prank and a team of hackers made it a reality with a modified Kinect. The thing with technology though is that someone somewhere always takes things a step further and makes what we've got now utterly rubbish. Take HD just when it started to take off the likes of Sky, LG, Nintendo started ramming 3D down our throats and it doesn't matter how good the quality of the 2D image is, that third dimensions really adds something special. So what's happened now to make motion sensing look old news before it's even became news.
What else but a mind-reading computer. Yes you read right; a computer which can be controlled with the power of thought. Home of 17 Nobel prize laureates, Washington University School of Medicine have just released the results of a study which show that human thoughts can control the movement of a cursor on a computer screen. Anyone seen that episode of House, ‘Locked In’?
To achieve the wonderfully futuristic mind reading computer, the patient’s brain is linked directly to the device via electrocortiography, which then records the mind’s electrical activity.In the study, people with no prior training were able to control the device with 90 per cent accuracy.
Obviously this research is nothing like the body controlled email system Google are dreaming of. Scientists believe that this study could lead to new ways to communicate for those with disabilities which of course is fantastic. Anything that can improve lives of people who face daily struggles should be fully pursued and we wish the staff at Washington the best. Team leader Dr Eric C Leuthardt of the Washington University School of Medicine comments: “This is one of the earliest examples, to a very, very small extent, of what is called ‘reading minds’ – detecting what people are saying to themselves in their internal dialogue.”
But once the medical industry have done their thing with it maybe the entertainment and computing folk will get their hands on it. Imagine a future where the TV knows what you want to watch and your computer knows what you want it to do. Or maybe a creepy mind reading video game. AI that literally know your next move. That would be some challenge.
So what would you do with a mind reading computer? Wacky ideas below please.