Slashdot Mirror
Researchers Aim To "Read Minds" of PC Users
hhavensteincw writes "Scientists at Tufts University are researching the use of light aimed at the forehead to measure the stress, work overload, or distraction a computer user may be feeling, as a way to adjust the UI to adapt to a user's emotional state. The research combines biomedical engineering and machine learning to adjust the UI. The project, which requires users to wear a futuristic head band, uses light to measure the flow of oxygenated blood to the brain that signals a user's rising stress levels typically associated with increasingly difficult tasks."
I wonder how a resident daemon would interpret the user's reaction after typing "rm -rf /" instead of "rm -rf ./"
How would it adjust the UI to fit his mood? Perhaps a soothing blue would be in order.
Raise of my temperature means I'm wanking off at porn.... No surprise to me ;-)
... welcome our mind-reading, futuristic-headband-enforcing UI-adjusting overlords!
Now my boss and work colleagues will know whether or not to approach me, by looking at the colour of my screen first!
Aha. I always wondered what HAL's light was for...
"Look Dave, I can see you're really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over."
If my computer "adjusts" its UI the way HAL did, I'm gonna kick it's ass...
Use 'slashdot stuff' in the subject line in any email you send me if you want to get past the spam filter.
...would turn pitch black while reading sensationalist headlines like these which actually have little in common with the article/research objective. ah...and some blood-red stains.
God, there are so many stories about this kind of tech. But you know, its not a very useful interface unless it has the right software to communicate with it--Like intelligent agents that show their own emotion, interacting with yours. I mean, does reading my physiology and figuring out that i'm stressed going to make the web page load faster?
Slartibartfast:"Is that your robot?"
Marvin:"No, I'm mine."
Hi Jacob, this is the military, I mean errr the National Science Foundation, we're backing off your funding, it seems that we misunderstood the specs you had given wherein you mentioned headbands and optical beams...
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
If they make it possible to make interface work better if I am stressed, I will have only one question - why not turn the "stressed" option on by default?
I simply don't get it, if they think they can make programs work safer/faster/better, why can't they do this without the need for me to be stressed.
.. what would you use this for?
,at any give time can know the stress level of the user. On a scale from 1 to 11.
...
Lets say that you application
How would you want an application that you use or develop to changes it workings depending on this?
There's an example of workload sharing in TFA, but really, there's a fine line between "this person is stressed and working well with that", and "this person is overstressed, and we better share the load a bit".
And for everyday use... "You seem stressed - I'll delay all your incoming mails (including the one you are stressed over not having arrived yet)"
I just don't think our computers are intelligent enough right now to use this information to anything useful...
TC - My Photos..
The only good use I can think of is for: Adaptive GUI coloring, when I get overheated because some lame-o though bright yellow could be a funny background color. Music automatic volume control, when stressed low volume music can calm me. Maybe a health advisor (Clippo better stays 6 feet under or I'm suing microsoft on necromancy) For making the software interact better with the user, each software should have infinite interaction ways... So I guess programmers would be the first ones needing this device, but there won't be stress headband ready software yet !!
The Universe is shrinking all around my head.
1. You're late for a presentation
2. You fire up PowerPoint in a desperate attempt to make some crucial changes to keep your potential customers happy
3. Your computer sees that you're stressed... which it considers to be unhealthy
4. Then Clippy pops up and says 'I can't do that Dave'!
This technique is a type of functional neuroimaging technology that offers a relatively non-invasive, safe, portable, and low-cost method of indirect and direct monitoring of brain activity. By measuring changes in near-infrared light, it allows researchers to monitor blood flow and blood oxygenation in the front cortex (only) of the brain. It is still a new technique, so it is not yet widely used in research, but it shows promising results in studies done to-date.
http://psychcentral.com/lib/2007/what-is-functional-optical-brain-imaging/ for pictures.
This is what the different PC users are really thinking;
Microsoft PC user: I've been pwned.
Macintosh PC user: Steve Jobs glow is supernatural.
Linux PC user: Microsoft die! die! die!
BSD PC user: Not dead yet.
Call me Kreskin.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
When the hardware detects anxiety, an animated paperclip pops up and says "I see you are feeling stressed".
Yup, that'll calm the user right down...
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
So what you're saying is that tinfoil will protect me right?
"Some books contain the machinery required to create and sustain universes."-Tycho
What is really needed is a computer which does what I want and not what it thinks I want.
I have this image of a lurking robotic device, towering over a cowering office worker, shining a light onto his/her head, saying in a suitably intimidating voice, "I sense you are experiencing stress"
prepare the survey weasels.
I for one welcome our health conscious, stress detecting robotic overlords. But seriously...Imagine this technology looking at the eyes and other more "careful" stress and tissue damage indicators on a torture device...that way you can adjust the device to get the same amount of "pain" for each user with a single setting (after all, I imagine my threshold for pain is much lower than that of, for example, Chuck Norris in his prime).
Ginga no Rekshiya Mata Each page.
As stress levels rise, I want the computer to get out of my way as much as possible, not have Clippy pop up saying, "It seems you're trying to accomplish a difficult task. Do you want me to mess it up for you?"
Also, if there's a way the computer can make my life easier, it should do that already rather than wait until I'm stressed out.
"Hey, shutting this thing off is proving an increasingly difficult task! The changing UI is so damn stressing!"
Also: "We're picking up very lightweight, subtle information," Jacob said. "We're not always sure we're getting perfect information, so we have to respond in a lightweight way. We've got to respond in gentle ways." Does subtle here mean rough? Lightweight as in fuzzy? This clears it all about it's usefulness, Eliza3000...
You are getting stressed. Cancel or Allow?
Usage: km/h for speed (kilometers per hour); kph for very slow impulses (kilopond hours).
... and my stress is correspondingly high, as I dive under the desk.
Is there a video game concept here? Real-life Gears of War or something?
Reduce, reuse, cycle
It'll only increase my stress levels if I'm nervous and a dumb algorithm shuffles the UI in front of me in attempt to make it better.
In such moments I'd rather prefer consistency and things I know. The errors I know, the controls I know, in the position and colors I know.
A headband? The 80s are so over. Go read someone else's mind, Johnny 5.
http://twitter.com/OLDTELEGRAM
Ask anyone in prepress or DTP - Apple Macs have had stress detectors built in for years! As the deadline approaches, you can almost guarantee it'll crash more as you get more stressed. I read that the computer does it because it thinks you're working too hard for your own good.
Forget thrust, drag, lift and weight. Airplanes fly because of money.
Great. Because if I'm stressed out, I definitely want my UI to start screwing around and behaving unusually according to what some jackoff in an ivory tower thinks will make me feel better self-esteem or whatever.
Complete idiocy.
Just because it's covered in a computerworld article doesn't mean it merits reposting... dupe link here
which requires users to wear a futuristic head band
This is one of those few times when I find myself wishing for more female representation. For some reason, male geeks just don't seem to understand the publics fashion sense. Futuristic headband=dork headgear. The look is 'more' important than the functionality when it comes to getting anything which needs to be worn out the door. And if it means a headband, it's never going to get into public use.
Everything will be taken away from you.
Why would they need the UI to adjust? Wouldn't their efforts be better spent making a UI that was as little stress inducing as possible and have it run that way full time?
Google MentalPlex was an April Fool's joke...
- Francis Ocoma
Please wait while Sig Request is being processed...
depending on various levels of stress
on a lighter note,
- level 1: UI starts lagging behind you, menu starts to flutter slowly, waiting cursor zooms in out a little to grab attention
- level 2: Applications become non-responsive, screen fades in and out slowly and cursor blinking almost stops (which raises stress to a further level)
- level 3, triggers as the voice recognition interprets f'in words frequently, and it locks everything takes user to an online yoga class
but seriously, I think whoever sits in front of the PC and whatever he is doing is always under ~some stress.
Good Golly Miss Molly, This story was up last week!!!!!!!!!!
If they take this to the next step we're all screwed!
Clippy with a direct feed from the users brain would be like a tinfoil hat infected with a CIA root kit. Mark my words: They have been plugging mice into computers for decades, mice are the ideal lab animal, it won't be long before corporate technology is able to reproduce tinfoil hats, soon as you put on the infected hat - bam - they suck your brain so dry that start voting for your favorite on "Big Brother".
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
First, the Minds are simplified,by forcing them to use Windows ME and watch daytime TV.
What if...
1. You're stressed about having to learn a new interface
2. The interface changes
3. See #1
Found this photo of the lead researcher. I knew there was something strange about this story. Lead Researcher
Back in the Amiga days I had an idea of using different biological readings with a video game. I never went anywhere with it but the basic idea was that dependent on the players physical state (maybe even far enough to decipher their emotions based on different readings) the game play could change in some fashion. Not too advanced of a concept but with as far as things have come since the late 80s/early 90s I think something like this could be done cost effectively today.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
I want a Back to the Future-style suction cup.
"measure the stress, work overload, or distraction a computer user may be feeling"
You are being distracted.
Cancel or allow?
Extreme Programming - Redundant Array of Inexpensive Developers
The words "futuristic" and "head band" do not belong together.
Now all we need is some programmers who understand user emotions to write the software that depends on it.
Instead of using this in a already developed product, it would make more sense in giving it to testers. Hey Frank, put on this headband before sliding into the testcube. Using camcorders and taking notes is already a part of usability testing, and this gear might be an added gadget in the arsenal.
However, having more socially intelligent people running usability tests might prove a better solution in the long run. But then again we can't play around with gadgets and get printouts of nice charts of the stress levels of my shiny new UI.
=-kiOwA-> EOF
Never mind the computer knowing what I think, I'd like a device that let me know what the f#ck it is thinking, or better still the people responsible for the f#cking stupid f#cking program I'm trying to use.
( HUMAN CMDRGRAVY HAS BEEN SEDATED, HE WILL BE UNAVAILABLE FOR FURTHER COMMENT FOR SOME TIME )
5. ???
6. Profit!
That technology had already been tested as part of Microsoft office, but fell through when, after a late night of coding, the program was misconfigured to display Clippy whenever the user was feeling annoyed.
I see you are becoming stressed. Would you like me to ...
Ve have vays of makin you not stressed! ;-)
Nick Waterman, Sr Tech Director, #include <stddisclaimer>
to measure stress and distraction levels.
It would be much easier just to log Slashdot access.
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
Laser! Apply directly to the forehead!
Laser! Apply directly to the forehead!
Laser! Apply directly to the forehead!
Laser is available without a prescription at research institutions nationwide.
Ceci n'est pas une sig.
If this system turned out to be at all accurate it would prove useful in chat programs. Seeing the moods people you are talking to would be incredibly helpful in deciphering ambivalent messages. Anyone follow me on this one?
The OS starts up an FPS for me to work my aggressions out on.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
When I read the summary, this is what leapt to my mind.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
But scientists at Tufts University are not in charge of Gundam!
Insert self-referential sig here.
If they want to read the mind of the typical PC user, they need to measure blood flow somewhere other than in the forehead.
Have gnu, will travel.
Here's a neat bit of trivia: When she was an undergraduate at Harvard, Natalie Portman (birth name Natalie Hershlag) in 2002 was the co-author on a paper in the journal NeuroImage, titled Frontal Lobe Activation during Object Permanence: Data from Near-Infrared Spectroscopy. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIR) is the same technique Jacob et al. (the researchers in the summary article) will be using to take measurements for adjusting user interfaces. Here's the abstract from Natalie Portman's paper:
The ability to create and hold a mental schema of an object is one of the milestones in cognitive development. Developmental scientists have named the behavioral manifestation of this competence object permanence. Convergent evidence indicates that frontal lobe maturation plays a critical role in the display of object permanence, but methodological and ethical constrains have made it difficult to collect neurophysiological evidence from awake, behaving infants. Near-infrared spectroscopy provides a noninvasive assessment of changes in oxy- and deoxyhemoglobin and total hemoglobin concentration within a prescribed region. The evidence described in this report reveals that the emergence of object permanence is related to an increase in hemoglobin concentration in frontal cortex.
I can start effectively marketing MRML (Mind-Reading Markup Language).
I'm Peggy.
All I have to do is output "Jeez, that sucks," continuously. Works for porn, too ;-)...
That is all.
This is offtopic but I wanted to make sure you'd see it.
You recommended I install openSUSE and KDE and I just wanted to say I've done both and it was dead easy to install. Much easier then Windows. I've used it for a little bit and there is a learning curve, but already I'm seeing the advantages to the differences. So thankyou very much for recommending both.
Using openSUSE instead of Windows since 9th of October, 2007 and liking it.
i am gonna order my anti tempest helmet now...