Comments on: Emotiv's headset gives users mind-control over digital objects

The hardware-software combination is designed to make it possible for users to control objects in a game with nothing but their mind.

[arlandean]

Give it a bit of time...

The smart money will seize this as more than just for recreational game purposes--always has. Psycho and Neuro-technologies for therapeutic purposes have been in their infancy for years, and are just now really coming into their own.

This will have immense value in areas such as therapeutic enhancement of locus of control, neuro-feedback for nerve damage, etc.

Let's not be short-sighted and ignore what's just over the horizon.

[gonesoon3]

mind control over digital objects

Gives a brand new meaning to the plugged-in generation, huh? My grandchildren will probably love it; I doubt it would catch on with the older generation; where as 'we' have a blast with wii.
Seriously, will these things be safe? I mean, viruses can affect computers. I don't think I would like even the remote possibility that ideas, concepts, 'subliminal' messages could be fed into the minds of children or young people.
What say you? Valid concern? Or digital paranoia?

[C.Schroeder]

It's an INPUT device

The headset is nothing more than very sensitive electrical sensors. The fact they can now do it without physically clipping electrodes to the scalp is an impressive advance in sensor technology. "Reading" the brain's electrical activity is one thing, injecting electrical impulses into the brain would be another matter entirely. Injecting "constructive" impulses into the brain (i.e. that convey information, as opposed to simply causing damage) would be even more difficult. I believe your digital paranoia is still safely in the realm on science fiction.

Personally, I would love to see this evolve into a replacement for the mouse, so I could keep my hands on the keyboard.

[joshter101]

I really think that this is digitl paranoia it has been proven time and time again that subliminal messages and such are a thing of the past... Hitler tried it, stalin tried and so did the U.S.

things such as subliminal messages are also in the eye of the beholder, it takes someone to actually believe in what they are seeing, in order for it to take effect and that is the same with things like hypnosis and such, howver I do believe that there are some real problems that we may come into contact with, like conditioning.

operational conditioning was really popular in early psychology, and we have found that you can technically condition anyone to just about anything given the right stimulus, so if the rewards were great enough (such as wanting to win the game) then a person would be more apt to want to do the action whatever that is... this could lead to people maybe taking the gaming experiences out into the real world and wreaking havoc, but yet again this is probably much more paranoia than this product deserves.

[Len Bullard]

Input Device However....

Schroeder is right. It is an input device matching a training pattern. No mind control per se.

Except..

For this to work reliably, the user has to create and evolve repeatable set of behavioral states they can easily repeat and reliably emit. There is training at work here and the fascinating questions involve determining the ranges of behaviors some user population can reliably emit and if over time, they statistically cluster around some set of behaviors.

It begins as a pure first order system being measured to drive a device. Once the behaviors are learned by the device, it becomes a second order system that only acts correctly if the emitted behavior matches the training set. The question then is, can third order feedback be put into the system software that guides the human toward a desired behavior or state of mind.

My intuition is yes. Now mind control is possible using an input device to the screen because of the guided effect of measurement. It isn't mind control precisely because it won't make you do what you don't want to do. It is like hypnotism where the willingness to relax and accept the stimulus source lowers inhibitions. My guess is the affective range is similar to and within the same bounds as hypnosis therapy, but I await test results. It could be stronger if there is an unknown coupler in the expressions on the screen and the training states.

[DigitalFrog]

Maybe this is way off base, but

It could possible be used to change behaviour. Lets say you take a headset and couple it with a biofeedback device that gives the user a mild shock when a pattern is matched. Then put it on the head of a someone with an undesirable behaviour (sex or violent offenders come to mind) and train it to respond to the unwanted behaviour. It would have to be a voluntary treatment as the person could probably fool it by giving it the wrong training.

Better than that Cheers episode with Cliff.

[Dr_Zinj]

Symbols

Ideally, we'd map each symbol in our language to a unique wave pattern and to display correctly; then you could type as fast as you can think. You'd probably be proficient within a week of training.

Edits would be weird though, as you'd probably get a lot of stray throughts (i.e. static or errors).

But at least we'd have the transmission end of a two-way mind-to-mind link.

The real trick is getting people to learn to correctly interpret the signals being sent to them. Are the people processing visually, audibly, or some other form of symbology? I think that interface is going to be more difficult. Although if you processed the incoming message as a audio feed into the person's headphones, and recorded wave activity at the same time; then you could try to impose the wave activity recorded in the hopes of getting the brain to receive it as sent.

My head aches just thinking about it. But damn close to functional telepathy. Borg Collective, here we come.

[sethum1]

Give your cerebellum a workout

It strikes me that reliability and precision are just a matter of building up some "muscle" memory. With training, it should be easily possible to consistently recall the exact brain activity to produce the desired effect. After time, it could become as second-nature as tying a shoe.

Of course, it would be a lot easier to link certain brain activity with an action that the user already mentally associates with that activity (such as imagining pulling the cube toward you). This might be more effective if, during the 6-second calibration, the program displayed the action you would be linking your brain activity to. Then you could more easily pretend you were controlling that activity and be receive the proper sensory feedback. Once the calibration was complete, simply re-visualizing pulling the cube toward yourself might be enough to trigger the activity.

[rich966]

In addition...

I was thinking along the same lines, though instead of having the monitor jest show the action being performed, let the user control the object through a physical input device such a a keyboard or joystick and have them think about the action during the calibration.

[taranfx]

Really nice

this is a great gimo. surely will get attention on many geeks.
i published it on my gadget blog too http://taranfx.com

regards,
Taran
www.xMusicSource.com
your Source for music

[BALTHOR1]

It doesn't work with virus in your computer

The clock speeds for speech synthesis and recognition have to be in the trillions of cycles per second.Somebody is banging engineering and this has to be stopped.

[corycountree]

Deep Computed BCI: A Short Story
Imagine your motor cortex fully activated while you have full muscle tone but both what your cortex says you are experiencing and what you are actually experiencing are not what you body is actually doing. You were trained to do this on a brain computer interface. Highly Skilled lucid dreamers in intense sessions and brain tomography on the level of seismic tomography make this all possible. Accessing the brain thru non-invasive means is vital in Berlin where Brain Computer Interfacers and the Locked-in are moving things with only their minds; however, one might say that all this research is treading water awaiting advances in Neuro-surgery. I?m pitching the thoroughly developed non-invasive technique as a necessary prelude to the invasive interface. I?m just looking for sympathetic places to post the story I?m telling in the form of a fictitious photo journal.
http://deepcomputedbciashortstory.blogspot.com/