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

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the techno-psychics-coming-soon dept.

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.

10 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)
  4. 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
  5. 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
  6. 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.

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

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

  8. 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.