Brainput: System used to moniter a user's brain activity, automatically adjusts computer interface w - Polidicks

[TABLE="width: 500"] [TR] [TD][TABLE="width: 500"] [TR] [TD] [quote]Conversations between people include a lot more than just words. All sorts of visual and aural cues indicate each party's state of mind and make for a productive interaction. But a furrowed brow, a gesticulating hand, and a beaming smile are all lost on computers. Now, researchers at MIT and Tufts are experimenting with a way for computers to gain a little insight into our inner world. Their system, called Brainput, is designed to recognize when a person's workload is excessive and then automatically modify a computer interface to make it easier. The researchers used a lightweight, portable brain monitoring technology, called functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), that determines when a person is multitasking. Analysis of the brain scan data was then fed into a system that adjusted the user's workload at those times. A computing system with Brainput could, in other words, learn to give you a break. There are other ways that a computer could detect when a person's mental workload is becoming overwhelming. It could, for example, log errors in typing or speed of keystrokes. It could also use computer vision to detect facial expressions. "Brainput tries to get to closer to the source, by looking directly at brain activity," says [URL="http://web.mit.edu/erinsol/www/"]Erin Treacy Solovey[/URL], a postdoctoral researcher at MIT. She presented the results last Wednesday at the Computer Human Interaction Conference in Austin, Texas. For an experiment, Treacy Solovey and her team incorporated Brainput into virtual robots designed to adapt to the mental state of their human controller. The main goal was for each operator, capped with fNIRS headgear, to guide two different robots through a maze to find a location where a Wi-Fi signal was strong enough to send a message. But here's what made it tough: the drivers had to constantly switch between the two robots, trying to keep track of both their locations and keep them from crashing into walls. As the research subjects drove their robots toward the strongest Wi-Fi signal, their fNIRS sensors transmitted information about their mental state to the robots. The robots, for their part, were programmed to focus on a state of mind called branching, in which a person is simultaneously working on two goals that require attention. (Previous studies have correlated certain fNIRS signals to this sort of mental state.) When the robots sensed that the driver was branching, they took on more of the navigation themselves. The researchers found that when the robots' autonomous mode kicked in, the overall performance of the human-robot team improved. The drivers didn't seem to notice or get frustrated by the autonomous behavior of the robot when they were multitasking. The researchers also tried increasing the autonomy of the robots when Brainput did not indicate that users were mentally overloaded. When they did this, they found that overall performance decreased. In other words, increased autonomy only helped when users were struggling to cope. "A good chunk of computer and human-computing interaction research these days is focused on giving computers better senses so they can either implicitly or explicitly augment our intellect and assist with our tasks," says Desney Tan, a researcher at Microsoft Research. "This work is a wonderful first step toward understanding our changing mental state and designing interfaces that dynamically tailor themselves so that the human-computer system can be as effective as possible." Treacy Solovey suggests that such a system could potentially be used to help drivers, pilots, and supervisors of unmanned aerial vehicles. She says future work will investigate other cognitive states that can be reliably measured using fNIRS.[/quote][/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [/TD] [TD][IMG]http://m.technologyreview.com/files/86173/emotion-trackingx220.jpg[/IMG]The brainput system Original article from Technology Review: [URL]http://m.technologyreview.com/computing/40406/?nlid=nlmbl&nld=2012-05-14[/URL][/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]

I'd prefer not having stuff reading my mind in some way, I feel rather uncomfortable about that concept.

[QUOTE=Red scout?;35977612]I'd prefer not having stuff reading my mind in some way, I feel rather uncomfortable about that concept.[/QUOTE] It isn't reading your mind, its just monitoring your brain activity, its just seeing how hard you are thinking about something.

[QUOTE=inconspicious;35977620]It isn't reading your mind, its just monitoring your brain activity, its just seeing how hard you are thinking about something.[/QUOTE] Yeah I know it's not literally reading my mind, but the whole concept of being able to extract information out of someones head is pretty scary to me.

[QUOTE=Red scout?;35977642]Yeah I know it's not literally reading my mind, but the whole concept of being able to extract information out of someones head is pretty scary to me.[/QUOTE] It's not extracting information though. It's just reading certain attributes about your brains current state to work out how hard you are thinking.

[QUOTE=Red scout?;35977642]Yeah I know it's not literally reading my mind, but the whole concept of being able to extract information out of someones head is pretty scary to me.[/QUOTE] Its just looking at the various sections of your brain and going: "ooh, there's quite a lot of electrical activity there, and that bit of the Brain is associated with analytical thinking, lets alter his UI to help him out!"

[QUOTE=Red scout?;35977642]Yeah I know it's not literally reading my mind, but the whole concept of being able to extract information out of someones head is pretty scary to me.[/QUOTE] You've been reading too much dystopian sci-fi novels, I think

Will we discuss the actual article soon?

[quote]The researchers found that when the robots' autonomous mode kicked in, the overall performance of the human-robot team improved. The drivers didn't seem to notice or get frustrated by the autonomous behavior of the robot when they were multitasking. The researchers also tried increasing the autonomy of the robots when Brainput did not indicate that users were mentally overloaded. When they did this, they found that overall performance decreased. In other words, increased autonomy only helped when users were struggling to cope.[/quote] This is pretty interesting, could be helpful for designing shit like air traffic control systems where the operator can go between waiting for something to happen and being busy as shit quite a lot.

Sounds awesome. I don't know how this could apply to everyday computing, (or at least my everyday computing) But i do see a lot of potential applications for this.

Ultimate Starcraft ...

[QUOTE=Red scout?;35977612]I'd prefer not having stuff reading my mind in some way, I feel rather uncomfortable about that concept.[/QUOTE] Sounds like you have something in your mind you are not comfortable with displaying. And no, nothing would be able to access your passwords, personal information, ecetera.

[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;35978946]Sounds like you have something in your mind you are not comfortable with displaying.[/QUOTE] Yeah, he freaks out and thinks he's a horrible person because he has a few fetishes

[QUOTE=Rents;35979195]Yeah, he freaks out and thinks he's a horrible person because he has a few fetishes[/QUOTE] I know right? I am completely alright for example with people who want a Boeing to ram them until they bleed.

[QUOTE=Rents;35979195]Yeah, he freaks out and thinks he's a horrible person because he has a few fetishes[/QUOTE] Shuddup >:C

And here comes to derailing.

[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;35979231]I know right? I am completely alright for example with people who want a Boeing to ram them until they bleed.[/QUOTE] I'm clearly an expert on the subject.

That's good and all, but when do we put are brain inside the computer?

Adaptive computer interface which goes on brain activity < Making fun of Red scout? Could we please get on topic while you guys just PM each other instead? [editline]16th May 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=Secrios;35979319]That's good and all, but when do we put are brain inside the computer?[/QUOTE] That would require us to know exactly how the brain works. I'm not sure if anyone is doing research on it, but it may take some years.

[QUOTE=Red scout?;35977642]Yeah I know it's not literally reading my mind, but the whole concept of being able to extract information out of someones head is pretty scary to me.[/QUOTE] That's like being scared of a thermometer. It's ridiculous.

[QUOTE=Red scout?;35977642]Yeah I know it's not literally reading my mind, but the whole concept of being able to extract information out of someones head is pretty scary to me.[/QUOTE] facial expressions

[QUOTE=Red scout?;35977612]I'd prefer not having stuff reading my mind in some way, I feel rather uncomfortable about that concept.[/QUOTE] Computers have no soul. They will not judge you for your pornography collection.