Mind-Reading Device Sends Twitter Messages
April 23, 2009 by admin
Filed under Stories Of Interest
Twitter messages are so short — a 140-character limit — that you have to really think about what you want to say.
For Adam Wilson, thinking is all he has to do.
Earlier this month, Wilson thought of a tweet (the name for a post to the social networking site) and poof, his computer read his mind and sent the darn thing. At just 23 characters, Wilson’s message, “using EEG to send tweet,” was done with a computer setup that interprets brain waves.
The technology could one day help patients who otherwise can’t communicate finally talk to the outside world. Among them are people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), brain-stem stroke or high spinal cord injury.
Other mind-reading devices have been developed recently. Other research has suggested brain activity could be monitored before decisions are made, perhaps with a mind-reading hat that would predict what we’ll do. One shines near-infrared light into the noggin to glean thoughts.
