The basic gist of it is that one puts on a headband, the headband picks up a range of physiological changes … which are converted into electrical signals and variation in these signals can be used to control a computer program. Sort of.
The signals it works on are EEG (that’s electrical activity in the brain), eye movements and muscular tension in the forehead.
I’ve actually seen this in action with the software provided by the distributing company. Although the underlying ideas of cyberlink are really quite astonsihing (and obvious I guess), the actual software that comes with the package is a bit dull. The person using the gear described it as mentally tiring because of the level of concentration needed, although with a bit of practice, it gets easier.
I can’t help thinking how good it would be to do something a bit more sophisticated than what I saw. For instance, link up cyberlink to something like a music visualiser, projected onto a big screen. Or how about linking it up with Blender - a blink, a frown and a mental picture of a haunted house = a winning entry to the weekend challenge. Or maybe not. Lots of scope for development…
I think you’re right Dittohead, it has been out for some time. I saw it being demonstrated about 3 years ago.
The potential of this stuff is massive and yet when I looked at the website, it has hardly moved on from what I saw 3 years ago. There is huge scope for developing it I think. At the moment, and this is the context in which I saw it, the “market” is for people with physical disabilities. For instance, helping people who are physically unable to use their arms/hands/fingers to use a computer.
If you take away the “marketing” stuff and reduce it down to its bare essentials, there is basically a sensor (EEG, eye movement, muscle tone) which is connected to a computer which affects what the computer does. There’s simply so much scope for development - and judging by the website, very little of the potential has been explored in the time since I saw it.
the advantage is for disabled people the most. it will be decades before this technology is perfected enough to even ive a handicapped person enough control to talk at full speed to someone else.
Hmmm, i’ve actually tried one of these things a few years back. Of course, im guessing its not as improved as the above link, but it works on basis. It was back when i was in highschool, we went to a technology museum. They had this helmet thingy hooked up to the computer and the monitor had earth rotating on an axis. What you had to do was stop the rotation and make it spin the other direction (by thinking). I only managed to stop the rotation, but a friend of mine managed to reverse rotation for a while.
the trick is to imagine a rotating cube. i saw once where they had one hooked up to a remote control car . you had to navigate it through the maze. and there is a whole lot of different applications for this, but typing with the mind would be nearly impossible (now atleast) as it would have to pick up and interpret different patterns of waves for every word or letter or idea, however it would work, and that would require a whole lotta concentration. but imagine all the hotkeys blender could have with a keyboard, mouse and eeg headband .
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