mindreading
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Nissan's 'mind-reading' Leaf projects driver reactions on the road
Nissan is no stranger to weird concepts for automobiles. Remember the automaker's Teatro for Dayz selfie wagon? To celebrate the 5th anniversary of its all-electric Leaf, Nissan developed a version of the car that can read a passenger's mind... sort of. After scanning brain waves of first-time test-drivers in the EV with a headset, the special-edition Leaf projected one of over 30 comic-esque messages on the road outside in real time. In other words, folks outside of the vehicle could "see" a general translation of what the driver was thinking. Luckily this is just a concept, so the thoughts that pass through your mind in fits of road rage will remain safe from public view -- for the near future, at least.
Scientists reconstruct images from our brains, plan to do the same for dreams (video)
This is your brain. And now this is your brain on YouTube. By using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) software, researchers at UC Berkeley created a visual representation of what our brains see when we watch a TV or movie. It works as such: scientists show subjects random clips and measure the corresponding cerebral activity. After the computer "learns" what vids evoke what brain activity, scientists feed 18 million seconds of random YouTube videos into the computer program where it reconstructs a movie representation of neural happenings based on the hundred clips most similar to what it sees. Although the method currently only works with images actually viewed, the future goal is to recreate what people see in their dreams and memories -- which could give doctors major insight to the minds of the mentally impaired, stroke victims or those with neurological disorders. Inception in real life isn't exactly around the corner, but the implications of this new technology are pretty mind-blowing. See for yourself in the video after the break -- no totem required.
Social x-ray glasses can decode emotions, make your blind dates less awkward
You may consider yourself a world-class liar, but a new pair of "social x-ray" glasses could soon expose you for the fraud you really are. Originally designed for people suffering from autism, these specs use a rice grain-sized camera to pick up on a person's 24 "feature points" -- facial expressions that convey feelings of confusion, agreement and concentration, among others. Once recognized, these signals are analyzed by software, compared against a database of known expressions and then relayed to users via an attached headphone. If their date starts to feel uncomfortable, a blinking red light lets them know that it's time to shut up. Rosalina Picard, an electrical engineer who developed the prototype with Rana el Kaliouby, acknowledged that her algorithm still needs some fine tuning, but told New Scientist that the glasses have already proved popular with autistic users, who often have difficulty deciphering others' body language. No word yet on when these social specs could hit the market, but they'll probably make us even more anti-social once they do.
Canadian scientists scan your brain, know how you want to hold your hand
O Canada -- your wacky scientists are at it again. And this time, the bright minds over at the University of Western Ontario have their third eye set on a certain precognitive prize. Avoiding the messier open-skull, electrode-imbedding alternative, researchers at the Centre for Brain and Mind employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to successfully predict the action of participants' hands before they'd moved a muscle. After a year of brain-scanning trials, scientists learned to accurately foretell which signals were linked to one of three set actions: grabbing the top of an object, its bottom, or simply reaching out to touch it. Like our clairvoyant cousin's previous beverage-predicting breakthrough, the spoils of this study go to prosthetic limb motion control and the paralyzed who'll use it. We know what you're thinking, but we're not going to make the obvious Thing joke here. Instead, we have to wonder -- What Would Ms. Cleo Do? Full release after the break, but you already knew that.
NeuroFocus makes first wireless EEG sensor headset, don't call it a thinking cap
It's well known that advertisers track our web-surfing habits to tailor the ads we see, but they'd prefer to know exactly what's going on inside of that brain of yours. NeuroFocus' aptly named Mynd, a full-brain wireless EEG sensor headset, serves as a stylish and easy way to record your thoughts whilst gazing at logos and lusting after products. In addition to neuromarketing applications, the European Tools for Brain-Computer Interaction consortium (TOBI) see it as a tool to help develop new technology for those with neurological disabilities. Sporting looks straight off the Game Grid, the Mynd is made of medical-grade EEG sensors to capture brain activity 2,000 times per second and a Bluetooth radio to shoot your thoughts to the smartphone, tablet, or PC of your choice. The wireless bit represents a huge upgrade over traditional EEG caps because it makes the headset's mind-reading powers available in shopping malls and living rooms instead of just hospitals. All so the sellers of things can know just how effective a spokesperson the ETrade baby really is. PR's after the break.
NeuroSky shows off MyndPlay, we control movies with our brainwaves (video)
Would you pay $100 to control the outcome of a movie with the power of your mind? That's what NeuroSky and Triete Labs are banking on with MyndPlay. Simply put, it uses NeuroSky's $99 Mindwave headset with a custom video player that monitors your mental activity during critical points in specially designed films, and offers multiple outcomes depending on your focus and relaxation levels. For instance, in Paranormal Mynd (above), you play an exorcist who must drive a evil spirit away -- if you don't focus intently, this woman will choke to death. Another gangster film has you dodging bullets and sports multiple endings; depending on how relaxed and concentrated you are, you could come away clean, take a bullet to the head, or dodge poorly and have the projectile strike your friend dead instead. MyndPlay plans to produce a raft of such short-form content for $0.49 to $1.99 per episode, and also let you shoot and share your own, scripting sequences with a tool to be released next month called MyndPlay Pro. We gave Paranormal Mynd a try at GDC 2011, and came away somewhat impressed -- you definitely can control the outcome of a scene, but it doesn't work quite like you'd expect. Since NeuroSky's technology is still limited to detecting the mental states of concentration and relaxation, you can't "will" the movie to go the way you'd like with your thoughts -- in fact, thinking about anything rather than what you're seeing on screen seemed to register as a form of distraction, and lowered our scores. Instead, the ticket to success seemed to be focusing intently on processing the images on screen and clearing our head of all thought or emotion, making us feel totally brain-dead even as we aced the scene. If that sort of zombification sounds like fun, watch a couple video teasers after the break!
German researchers take mind-controlled car for a carefully-controlled spin
Emotiv's mind-reading EPOC headset may not have changed the face of video games, but it looks like it's proven to be more than adequate for a team of German researchers, who've used it as the key component in their BrainDriver project. Yes, that's a mind-controlled car and, after a bit of training, is does appear to have performed reasonably well -- albeit with a slight delay that makes any real world test a worse idea than it already was. Interestingly, this latest effort actually follows some previous attempts at a completely autonomous car by the same group of researchers at the Freie Universität Berlin, and they say that the two could eventually be combined at some point in the distant future -- for instance, in a taxi that's able to drive itself but also responds to the thoughts of its passengers. Head on past the break for the video.
NeuroSky sticks EEG sensors in a golf visor, sells it to Japanese athletes (video)
NeuroSky's mind-reading headsets haven't exactly revolutionized modern user input -- they just measure midichlorian count and control an app or three -- but the company's definitely moving towards products that the general public can take seriously. This BrainAthlete system, for instance, first graced Tokyo Game Show 2010 as an ugly sweatband, but has since graduated to this handsome golf visor cap, which merely measures an athlete's brainwaves as they play rather than promise brain control. The idea is that trainers can analyze the data in real time, and potentially find strengths and weaknesses in their charges' state of mind. The 40,000 yen (about $483) went on sale in Japan early this month, and promises to find stateside availability in the first quarter of next year. Plenty of time for you to figure out how you're going to get one onto your opponent's head. Video after the break.
Cambridge developing 'mind reading' computer interface with the countenance of Charles Babbage (video)
For years now, researchers have been exploring ways to create devices that understand the nonverbal cues that we take for granted in human-human interaction. One of the more interesting projects we've seen of late is led by Professor Peter Robinson at the Computer Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, who is working on what he calls "mind-reading machines," which can infer mental states of people from their body language. By analyzing faces, gestures, and tone of voice, it is hoped that machines could be made to be more helpful (hell, we'd settle for "less frustrating"). Peep the video after the break to see Robinson using a traditional (and annoying) satnav device, versus one that features both the Cambridge "mind-reading" interface and a humanoid head modeled on that of Charles Babbage. "The way that Charles and I can communicate," Robinson says, "shows us the future of how people will interact with machines." Next stop: uncanny valley!
Japan plans mind-reading robots and brain interface devices 'by 2020'
Our grandparents did warn us that laziness would get us in trouble. The Japanese government and private sector are, according to the Nikkei, all set to begin work on a collaborative new project to develop thought-controlled gadgets, devices ... and robots. The aim is to produce brain-to-computer interfaces that would allow the ability to change channels or pump out texts just with your almighty brain power, while also facilitating artificial intelligence that would be capable of detecting when you're hungry, cold, or in need of assistance. Manufacturing giants Toyota, Honda and Hitachi get name-dropped as potential participants in this 10-year plan, though we wonder if any of them will have the sense to ask what happens when an ultra-precise and emotionless bot is given both intelligence and mind-reading powers. Would it really stick to dunking biscuits in our tea, or would it prefer something a little more exciting?
Mind reading gets closer to real thanks to Canadian scientists
Hate to break it to you, but that clairvoyant you've been paying daily to read you fortune cookies while blindfolded actually isn't some sort of medium. Tough to swallow, we know. That said, researchers at Canada's largest children's rehabilitation hospital are getting closer to equipping entrepreneurial individuals with the tools they need to read minds. By measuring the intensity of near-infrared light absorbed in brain tissue, scientists were able to decode a person's preference for one of two drinks with 80 percent accuracy, all without a single minute of training on the human's behalf. This research gives promise to finding out true feelings of those who can't speak or move due to physical limitations, though there's no word on how close it is to becoming viable outside of a lab. As an aside, we hear Professor X is pretty perturbed.
Intelligent dashboard could shut off distractions to improve reaction times
We've already seen whips that brake for us, steer for us and wheel us into that last remaining spot on 5th Avenue without marring someone's BMW, so it follows logic that we'd see vehicles that peer into our minds, too. Research done by a crew at the Technical University of Berlin has shown that a "smart dashboard" could one day deactivate distractions within the vehicle in order to improve driver response if things simply get too hectic. Reportedly, the system could switch off in-car gadgetry (you know, navigators, radios, Hello Kitty headsets, etc.) when one's brain became overloaded in order to speed up reaction time "by as much as 100-milliseconds." Of course, this is assuming that said brain won't melt down even further when that beloved iPod inexplicably shuts off just as Slash gears up for some serious shredding in Welcome to the Jungle, but nevertheless, we applaud the effort.[Image courtesy of TAMU]
Researcher claims to read thoughts from neuronal activity
Mind reading developments seem to pop up every so often, but this particular case is somewhat extraordinary. How so? Probably because a University of Leicester researcher has outright proclaimed that his team "can read human thoughts from neuronal activity." Reportedly, Dr. Rodrigo Quian Quiroga and colleagues were able to optimize a decoding algorithm and use it to "infer the stimulus from the neuronal firing," and during tests in which patients were presented with a vast database of images, the team was seemingly able to "predict what picture the subject was seeing far above chance." Beyond giving sci-fi drama creators a bit more to work with, the technology could also be used to transmit thoughts to bionic appendages in order for paralyzed individuals to better care for themselves. Still, there's quite a few ethical / clinical issues that would have to be worked out before this stuff ventured beyond the lab, but we definitely can't argue with the premise.[Via Physorg, image courtesy of University of Leicester]
Learning coffee machine on the horizon, could use GPS / RFID
Although a coffee machine that slowly but surely learns your daily preferences in regard to cups of java may sound outlandish, the already-created RFID-enabled refrigerator certainly brings things back into focus. A "provisional patent exploration into coffee machines that learn and react to their users" is underway in Lafayette, Indiana, as James Pappas is hoping to take ubiquitous computing to the next level on coffee makers of the future. While internet-connected and weather-displaying renditions are already on store shelves, Pappas is hoping to utilize some form of GPS / RFID technology to create a machine that learns and adapts to your coffee drinking ways so it can automatically have a white chocolate cappuccino ready and waiting each weekday (except Monday, which is your straight-up black coffee day, right?) without you having to touch a thing. Furthermore, he's hoping to take the idea to the mobile front, as he refers to a cellphone interface to dial-in your next request so that it's ready to go by the time you hit the kitchen. Still, it sounds like the invention is a few years off at best, but serious drinkers better hope this thing automatically alerts you when the beans are running low, too.[Image courtesy of CoffeeToThePeople]
Scientists using MRI to predict intentions, Big Brother seen nodding approvingly
If you'd relegated the Thought Police from that Cliff Notes version of 1984 you read in high school to science fiction, think again, friend: scientists in Germany have just made the first major progress in being able to predict a person's intentions before they act them out. As you might expect, the team from Berlin's Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience are using modern technology's best tool for observing brain activity -- Magnetic Resonance Imaging -- to determine subjects' likely course of action when presented with a set of numbers that they may either add or subract. Now before you start freaking out that the cops are about to bust down your door all Minority Report-style for that nasty crime you're planning on committing, bear in mind that this research is still in its infancy, and that the reported success rate of 70% is still closer to chance than rigorous scientific truth. In other words, when researchers presented test subjects with a set of digits, they were only able to interpret the cortical activity correctly seven out of ten times -- the other three times, people zigged (added) when they were expected to zag (subtract). So, what does this all this mean for you paranoid conspiracy theorists out there? Not much -- for now. First of all, it's going to take as long as a decade to codify the cortical patterns associated with each one of the almost infinite variations on human thought. Secondly, MRI machines aren't exactly the most portable or inobtrusive instruments around, meaning that some pretty tech new devices are going to have to be invented if Big Brother really wants to monitor our thoughts covertly. In other words, tuck that tin foil cap back in the drawer and continue about your daily business.
