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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.

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

    ... the tinfoil hat will become useful.

    CC.

    --
    TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
  3. 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
  4. 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.

  5. 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.