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Technology Could Enable Computers To "Read The Minds" Of Users

New techniques under development could allow computers to respond to users' thoughts of frustration or boredom (too much or too little work) by applying functional near-infrared spectroscopy technology, which uses light to monitor brain blood flow as a proxy for user workload stress. Applying this noninvasive, portable imaging technology in new ways, the researchers hope to gain real-time insight into the brain's emotional cues.

19 of 121 comments (clear)

  1. I for one... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well, the computer already knows what I'm going to write, so why bother?

    1. Re:I for one... by WhyDoYouWantToKnow · · Score: 5, Funny
      I can see it now.

      USER: You mean you can see into my mind.
      COMPUTER: Yes
      USER: And
      COMPUTER: It amazes me how you manage to live in anything that small.

      Quote shamelessly stolen from the Hitchhikers Guide.

      --
      "Oh drat these computers, they're so naughty and so complex. I could pinch them."
      Marvin the Martian
  2. one step closer by kevin.fowler · · Score: 4, Funny

    No joke... if my computer scanned my brain and posted random LOLCats when I got sad or bored, my life would be legitimately better.

    --
    Bury me in mashed potatoes.
    1. Re:one step closer by protolith · · Score: 4, Funny

      I can just see it, I'm working on some document and the text "TPS Report" shows up. Then 2/3rds of the script for office space is suddenly cluttering the rest of the document.

      I'm not sure I want all of my weird random thoughts actually materializing as I type. Oooo Shiney

      It would get me fired. Especially if I'm working on something related to my degree (geology), Cleavage, Dike, fold and thrust, my pornographic memory does not always conjure up the safe and sane meaning first.

      ...

      lets ride bikes...

  3. Finally ... by foobsr · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... the tinfoil hat will become useful.

    CC.

    --
    TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
    1. Re:Finally ... by wizardforce · · Score: 3, Interesting

      except that MIT already showed that under certain conditions foil on the head actually focuses electromagnetic radiation, a very ineffective "brain wave shield" indeed. although this one in particular seems to require a measurement of blood flow, presumably anything that shields against electromagnetic radiation capable of measuring blood flow would be sufficient. :)

      --
      Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
  4. understand users by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I am a developer and a user and I still can't understand what I want, much less what the average user is thinking... Good Luck!

  5. Monitor blood flow? by GuyMannDude · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm glad they are restricting the sensors to monitor brain blood flow while I'm at the computer. When my employeer starts automatically monitoring blood flow below my waist when I'm surfing online, that's when I'll start to get a bit worried. :)

    GMD

  6. old news by rucs_hack · · Score: 3, Funny

    My windows machine computer already does this. It uses an incredibly precise mind reading method to determine the absolute worst moment to shut down/blue up, or provide me with a handy dialog box explaining that the current app doesn't want to play any more and has taken my data home with it.

  7. 1st Practical appl. of DXdiag 3D cube found! by Zymergy · · Score: 3, Funny

    "While wearing the fNIRS device, test subjects viewed a multicolored cube consisting of eight smaller cubes with two, three or four different colors. As the cube rotated onscreen, subjects counted the number of colored squares in a series of 30 tasks."

  8. I can't be the only one by techpawn · · Score: 5, Insightful

    who thought it was an oxymoron to see "non-invasive" and "computer brain scan"?

    --
    Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country did to you
  9. Scenario by TheRealMindChild · · Score: 4, Funny

    Boss: Look, we got a report from our monitors that you were... um... sexually excited, two days ago around 3pm. Just about the time we heard reports of grunting sounds from your cube.
    Employee: uhhhhhhhhhh
    Boss: This prompted us to install a logger on your machine. We were able to get your VPN password you were using to connect to your home, and noticed you have a thing for zombie midget porn.
    Employee: errr
    Boss: We were also able to detect that your... libido... rise when the one-legged secretary delivers your mail to your cube. Employee: ...

    Boss: Wait till you see my wife's mother. She is coming in here with my wife in about fifteen minutes. You'll like her. She was in a car wreck a year or so ago and had a skin graft on 80% of her body!

    --

    "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
  10. Bad idea. by Trillan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Text-based interfaces prove that most users couldn't read.

    Graphic interfaces prove that most users can't understand abstractions.

    Mind reading interfaces will only prove that most users can't think.

  11. What Question Mark by avirrey · · Score: 3, Funny

    Personally comma I don't trust this thing period I mean really comma if the voice-recognition program can get it straight comma what makes me thing this thingamadongle on top of my head is going to get my thought pattern down correctly question mark question mark question mark It's just silly period

    Yes comma I did train the word thingamadongle period

    --
    X's and O's for all my foes.

  12. Useless without context by zeoslap · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What is the device supposed to do with the information without knowing the context? Am I stressed because of the call I've just taken, the news story I've just read or my inability to use a specific app. Neat tech but good luck trying to use it to do anything useful.

  13. In other news.... by nobodyman · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sony and Microsoft are developing competing formats for reading your mind.

  14. I don't want to read the minds of my users by rantingkitten · · Score: 5, Funny
    Especially when this is typical of the email they send:

    Subject: Phones not working
    Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2007 8:40:42 -0700 (11:40 EDT)

    HELP!!!! PLEASE!!!!
    That's it. That was the whole thing, minus the guy's name. Or how about

    Subject: directory
    Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2007 09:46:50 -0500 (10:46 EDT)

    I am pushing the 'dir' button. WHY???

    I don't know why, ma'am.

    Seriously. I think if could peer into the "mind" of my users, I'd just see a saw going back and forth through a log, or one of those cymbal-clapping wind-up monkey toys. I can't imagine there's much else going on up there.
    --
    mirrorshades radio -- darkwave, industrial, futurepop, ebm.
  15. Limited Use At Best by moore.dustin · · Score: 3, Informative

    Everyone is quick to dream up what technology like this could yield, but we are far from being able to apply this technology into anything truly useful.

    We have an unimaginable amount of information on the brain anatomy and biology, but no real idea on how the brain works at a fundamental level. That information is vital to being able to make intelligent technology that can actually make use of stuff like is discussed in TFA. I am sure many have already read it, but there is a great book on the subject called On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins. It talks about the study of the brain and why current attempts to create AI are doomed to failure.

    Anyways, I thought I should mention the book as it opened my eyes and gave me great insight into the industry and our very remarkable brains. :)

  16. The Whip Cracking Algorithm. by Alien54 · · Score: 3, Interesting
    . . . uses light to monitor brain blood flow as a proxy for user workload stress.

    They will use the stress level to monitor if you are providing enough output. Obviously, Maximum Stress(tm) = Maximum Output(tm).

    This feeds directly into the whip cracking algorithm.

    --
    "It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"