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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."
Headline seems a bit sensationalists, they're not reading minds, they MEASURING STRESS.
Blah blah sig blah blah blah irony blah blah
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.
Why would you ever want to type 'rm -rf ./'?
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
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.
Well it's more like, your boss will know exactly how stressed you are and might decide he can crank it up a notch and give you extra work & stress. And he won't need to look at your screen, he will have a dashboard with stress metrics for all his employees on his own desktop. The adaptive UI story is just a smokescreen deployed at employee level to hide the real intent of this device.
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?
What if...
1. You're stressed about having to learn a new interface
2. The interface changes
3. See #1