A computer can, in a very real sense, read human minds. Although
the dot's gyrations are directed by a computer, the machine was only carrying
out the orders of the test subject.The computer mind-reading technique is far more than a laboratory
stunt. Though computers can solve extraordinarily complex problems with
incredible speed, the information they digest is fed to them by such slow,
cumbersome tools as typewriter keyboards or punched tapes.
The key to his scheme: the electroencephalograph, a device
used by medical researchers to pick up electrical currents from various parts
of the brain. If we could learn to identify brain waves generated by specific
thoughts or commands, we might be able to teach the same skill to a computer.
The machine might even be able to react to those commands by, say, moving a dot
across a TV screen So far the S.R.I,
computer has been taught to recognize seven different commands—up, down, left,
right, slow, fast and stop.
Tufts University
researchers have begun a three-year research project which, if successful, will
allow computers to respond to the brain activity of the computer's user. Users
wear futuristic-looking headbands to shine light on their foreheads, and then
perform a series of increasingly difficult tasks while the device reads what
parts of the brain are absorbing the light. That info is then transferred to
the computer, and from there the computer can adjust it's interface and
functions to each individual.
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