MIT is developing Mind-Reading Headphones
MIT presents AlterEgo mind-reading headphones.
Hello Black Mirror, as technology inches closer towards the integration of man and machine.
MIT is developing a special headset that allows users to communicate with a computer system via thought, similar to issuing a command to Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri-telepathically.
The wearable device called AlterEgo is attached to your face and jaw (non-invasively) and makes use of electrodes which pick up neuromuscular signals triggered when you say words in your head.
Basically you convey your questions in your head and then the device talks back to you via bone conduction straight into your ear, without obstructing the ear canal like regular ear buds.
Users will have the vast knowledge of the internet/AI/digital assistant without perturbing their current environment- a complete telepathic question/answer system.
Alternatively interesting…
AlterEgo’s development was led by one of Maes’ graduate students, Arnav Kapur whose idea was to “have a computing platform that’s more internal, that melds human and machine in some ways and that feels like an internal extension of our own cognition.”
Possible applications include use in military or people with disabilities, for example someone like Roger Ebert, who lost his jaw to cancer.
“Could he do this sort of silent speech and then have a synthesizer that would speak the words?” Starner asks.
How could this headset influence the music industry and DJing, for instance?
Imagine DJs wearing these devices, communicating with their computer system and choosing tracks, or even mixing telepathically.
Or seeing what key certain tracks are therefor building seamless sets?
And what about music production? Imagine producing tracks telepathically? Technology could become so advanced that Producers could literally transfer from mind to computer.
Interesting times, indeed!
Watch a clip of what MIT’s mind-reading headphones can do.
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