It might sound a bit futuristic but it’s happening right now. Computers are currently being developed that could put an end to both the mouse and the keyboard as the computer will know what you are thinking.
According to a report in the daily Telegraph, current mind reading computer technology involves thinking about making physical movements in order to navigate around a computer but the new technology being developed by Intel goes a step further.
Scientists at the Intel labs are busy creating detailed maps of where activity takes place in the brain when individual words are being thought about.
This would allow someone to write an email or search the internet just by thinking about the words you want to use as the computer will be able to match the right word against the activity taking place in the brain.
Intel is working on producing smaller equipment such as headsets for example, which will be able to produce as much detail as the likes of the larger and much more expensive magnetic resonance scanning equipment currently used in hospitals.
Dean Pomerlau, a senior researcher at Intel laboratories told the Telegraph how the computer would be able to identify the different words you are thinking.
“A noun with a physical property such as spade, which you dig with, produces activity in the motor cortex of the brain, as this is the area that controls physical movements” he said.
“A food related word like apple, however, produces activity in those parts of the brain related to hunger. So the computer can infer attributes to each word being thought about and this lets the computer zero down on what the word is pretty quickly.
“We are currently mapping out the activity that an average brain produces when thinking about different words. It means you’ll be able to write letters, open emails or do Google searches just by thinking”.
I’m not sure whether this is exciting or terrifying! The technology is obviously just at the development stage at the moment and limited to certain words but over time this will be fine tuned and the computer will be able to read your mind more and more accurately.
“Mind reading is the ultimate user interface” said Justin Ratner, Intel’s chief technology officer.
“There will be concerns about privacy with this sort of thing and we will have to overcome them….What is clear though is that humans are not restricted any more to just using keyboards and mice”.
Wow! This is mind blowing stuff.
