a headset that reads your brainwaves

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVhggGSjXVg

the singularity is coming!

she demonstrates some pretty cool stuff applications for this, but immediately i wondered if it could be used to "autoplay" instruments with melodies and rhythms based in your imagination. if so:

The hardware was announced a while ago, but actually seeing it in action is awesome.

I think the biggest unforeseen use of this technology will be telepathic communication.

All you need to do is train the headset to recognize two different thought patterns and you can communicate in binary / morse code. Then you just have it send the signal over bluetooth to another person with the same setup. They hear in their ear what you're thinking in your mind, and vice versa. With better training, and as the hardware advances, you'll probably be able to do entire words, and then it's game over.

it's definitely gonna be game over for a lot of people who would rather not mess with the real, physical world. erm, "consequences will never be the same," if you know what I mean. Second life might well become first life. Self-induced caste systems abound, etc.

but seriously now, i want to be able to sit down and imagine my midi controllers doing things and watch ideas spring to life. this gives new meaning to 'real time.' There have been some pretty strange orchestras going off in my mind (oftentimes chemically induced)... bringing them to life as the thoughts come and go would be beyond amazing.

As for telepathy, sharing throughts via bluetooth seems a little creepy, but I guess if you could secure the mental tie (ie, no one with similar thought patterns[?] could interfere and listen in or place new thoughts in the connection)... i dunno. Do people really want to know each other on such an intimate level? Will rogue sociologists become code-breakers? Will the government outlaw connections to 'dangerous minds'? Will there be oversight? Can I creep out my elders with taboo breaking harsh noise at the flip of a neuron? Will hippies and conservatives reject the technology and become isolated towers of terror whilst the scientific community taps into it's own collective unconscious? Are sexy thoughts gonna cost money? Can I bend my headset?

When cryogenics gets far enough along I'm gonna be one of the first in line, goddamn. I'd love to wake up a century later and snort some nanodrugs and telepathically head out to the dog star.

Not to mention eat some nutritional paste from my food printer.

  On 7/30/2010 at 7:24 AM, chaosmachine said:

The hardware was announced a while ago, but actually seeing it in action is awesome.

This should go on the list of most IDM things of 2010

waiting for the first music composition software where i can just think what i want to hear, instead of trying to time my limbs or translate a rhythm into edit steps..

  On 7/30/2010 at 6:00 PM, luke viia said:

 

When cryogenics gets far enough along I'm gonna be one of the first in line, goddamn. I'd love to wake up a century later and snort some nanodrugs and telepathically head out to the dog star.

Obviously they are still improving the methods but there are already a few companies who do cryonics. Not too many worldwide though.

If they are really able to directly map imagining the cube fading to the command than that is quite impressive. But they should have mixed it up and made him pull after mapping the fade out.

I wonder how many commands this would be able to comprehend without false positives. It's like voice detection, a program that only has to understand 10 words will do it much better than one that has to comprehend thousands of words.

In any case, interesting video. I always thought we needed more knowledge about the brain to be able to do this type of thing. But if we can do precise, detailed pattern detection and map the thoughts to commands it might just work.

  On 7/30/2010 at 7:59 PM, Ego said:

 

In any case, interesting video. I always thought we needed more knowledge about the brain to be able to do this type of thing. But if we can do precise, detailed pattern detection and map the thoughts to commands it might just work.

you might be interested in this

http://www.viddler.com/explore/memvids/videos/14/

edit. its a 20 minute talk at the singularity summit 08

  On 7/30/2010 at 6:00 PM, luke viia said:

There have been some pretty strange orchestras going off in my mind (oftentimes chemically induced)... bringing them to life as the thoughts come and go would be beyond amazing.

Mix this puppy with aforementioned induced state and see what happens.

  On 7/30/2010 at 8:09 PM, Rambo said:

  On 7/30/2010 at 7:59 PM, Ego said:

 

In any case, interesting video. I always thought we needed more knowledge about the brain to be able to do this type of thing. But if we can do precise, detailed pattern detection and map the thoughts to commands it might just work.

 

you might be interested in this

 

http://www.viddler.com/explore/memvids/videos/14/

 

edit. its a 20 minute talk at the singularity summit 08

lol at the retro sci-fi slideshow design. But yeah, there are definitely possibilities in the forthcoming decennia to tie computers closer to our brains so we can use technology to complement our creativity, associative capabilities etc. I've noticed you are very interested in "BCI" like that guy calls it. Do you know any site or something to get the latest updates from researchers doing development on these sort of things?

  On 7/30/2010 at 8:57 PM, Ego said:

 

lol at the retro sci-fi slideshow design. But yeah, there are definitely possibilities in the forthcoming decennia to tie computers closer to our brains so we can use technology to complement our creativity, associative capabilities etc. I've noticed you are very interested in "BCI" like that guy calls it. Do you know any site or something to get the latest updates from researchers doing development on these sort of things?

Firstly, you have no right knowing that word. I dont know it and im English lol

but no, i dont know any specific BCI websites really. I know there are sites out there because i have been on them but i haven't got any sites bookmarked for regular visits. I just hear the majority of stuff through tech forums, google searches and certain people on twitter.

a few videos i had stored on google wave:

2 people play pong with BCI2000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suKTlrzaU9g&feature=player_embedded

person controls robotic dog

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76K6fJ11c5Y&feature=player_embedded

BCI controlled wheelchair

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VPY1d2t_FE&feature=player_embedded

Monkey controls robot arm - 6 degrees of freedom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZn46l7uEKg&feature=player_embedded

This is nothing new. We have several people running neurofeedback-systems hooked up to ps3/360's etc. at the institute I work at.

Didn't mean to be a negative cunt though, it's really fucking cool!

  On 7/30/2010 at 10:45 PM, impakt said:

This is nothing new. We have several people running neurofeedback-systems hooked up to ps3/360's etc. at the institute I work at.

It is something new because it's a consumer product people can actually buy for $300, not some darpa research grant demo. Mainframes were around a long time, but it was the Apple II that really changed things.

  On 7/30/2010 at 9:09 PM, Rambo said:

  On 7/30/2010 at 8:57 PM, Ego said:

 

lol at the retro sci-fi slideshow design. But yeah, there are definitely possibilities in the forthcoming decennia to tie computers closer to our brains so we can use technology to complement our creativity, associative capabilities etc. I've noticed you are very interested in "BCI" like that guy calls it. Do you know any site or something to get the latest updates from researchers doing development on these sort of things?

 

Firstly, you have no right knowing that word. I dont know it and im English lol

 

but no, i dont know any specific BCI websites really. I know there are sites out there because i have been on them but i haven't got any sites bookmarked for regular visits. I just hear the majority of stuff through tech forums, google searches and certain people on twitter.

maybe this: http://openeeg.sourceforge.net/doc/?

Yeah I've looked at the software listed on that page before. But they make these self-made electrodes that look downright scary:

i don't understand. they don't explain how it works very well.

if i think "up" the thing goes up? and if i think "down" the thing goes down?

how do they know it's not just any old random brain activity that makes the damn thing move toward the screen? what physical place in the brain says "move up."

i don't really buy this, but i've been waiting for something like this as many have. i want to see more information on the specifics.

as in: it barely ever works properly.

you don't "buy" this? what?

she clearly explains there is no universal "physical space in the brain the says move up", which is why this has been such a difficult task for them to achieve.

actually forget it. i guess there are simple ways that this could work.

well it just seems a bit ridiculous. i do think it's possible, just the way they presented it made it out to be more than it is, it seems.

is it possible for the box to either disappear and move at the same time? like he could say, "i am going to make it disappear," and then it disappears. it seems like they switch it from "disappear" mode to "move" mode, which sort of fails to show how something like this is really all that special.

but i did think, i guess they do just research what happens in the mind when a person thinks "up," and then use those patterns to control the pongs.

are you forgetting that they only took 8 seconds to program that guy's thoughts? it only had one instance of him thinking "pull" or "disappear" to work with. the more you train it, supposedly, the better it works with your thought patterns.

8 seconds.

if that dude had spent 8 hours, or 80 hours, concentrating, he could no doubt accomplish a heck of a lot more.

believe me, i am ready to be excited and blown away by this thing. i actually somewhat strongly believe in the idea of "the singularity," when it comes to the idea of Artificial Intelligence and the human mind, computers, etc, being blended into a completely new being - ushering in a new era of pure existence for life as we know it in the universe.

i am not impressed by the original post video because it doesn't seem to show anything new in terms of technology and possibilities regarding the connection of the brain and the computer. but i do like seeing anything about this subject that is taken seriously.

anyway, poop shit farts.

i will be impressed when they have a dot on the screen, and the mind can make it move to other dots on the screen. that will be a small step towards something truly incredible. as of now it seems too limited. promising, but limited. i have no doubt that it will continue to fucking progress you fucking idiot.