From Touchpad To Thought-pad

An anonymous reader wrote with a story saying "Move over, touchpad screens: New research funded in part by the National Institutes of Health shows that it is possible to manipulate complex visual images on a computer screen using only the mind. The study, published in Nature, found that when research subjects had their brains connected to a computer displaying two merged images, they could force the computer to display one of the images and discard the other. The signals transmitted from each subject's brain to the computer were derived from just a handful of brain cells."

Comments

Conflicted

[Pojut]

On the one hand, the control and abilities of computers would grow by leaps and bounds if they were mind-controlled.

On the other hand, there's something to be said of tactile feedback. I'm not sure if brain-->computer would be as satisfying as brain-->hands-->computer.

Re:Conflicted

[TerminaMorte]

Not to you or me maybe; we'll be too used to using our hands. But what about people who grow up with it? Maybe in a few decades computers won't even come with mice/keyboard. That's only for old people. :P

Re:Conflicted

[mcgrew]

There's also something to be said about having WIRES IN YOUR BRAIN. Yes, I have an eye implant and have had doctors stick needles in that eye (twice), but it was to keep from going blind.

The only way I'd let them put wires in my brain would be to prevent or cure brain damage.

Handful of Brain Cells

[Bicx]

That's quite an ambiguous term. For instance, my hand can probably hold about 1/3 of my brain matter.

However, my girlfriend hand (which is considerably smaller than mine) could probably hold several brains the size of her own.

Now this joke is really getting out of hand...

Re:Handful of Brain Cells

[gstoddart]

However, my girlfriend hand (which is considerably smaller than mine) could probably hold several brains the size of her own.

Wow, I hope she doesn't read Slashdot. Or you're going to have to worry about holding something else in your hand.

Re:Handful of Brain Cells

[CCarrot]

However, my girlfriend hand...

So...which one is your 'girlfriend' hand, the right or the left?

</tasteless>

brain interface pfft!

[shadowrat]

My computer has been controlled by my brain for years. I think about how i want my fingers to move and the text gets entered into the system. As an added benefit, i can prevent my computer from accepting text from my thoughts by simply putting my hands in a different place!

Years of Practice already Seen

[Trailwalker]

The signals transmitted from each subject's brain to the computer were derived from just a handful of brain cells."

AKA: Posting

Thought-pad?

[gstoddart]

I'd want to be sure I have some pretty good filtering ... otherwise BOOBIES stray thoughts BOOBIES are going to be injecting BOOBIES themselves into BOOBIES what I'm doing and really BOOBIES mess things up.

Humans are SQUIRREL easily distracted, so if you're not BOOBIES careful, you're going to get MMMM ... CAKE some random activity.

Brain matters

[Drakkenmensch]

If you believe in telekinesis, raise my hand!

We'll see in 30 years

[redemtionboy]

Consider touchscreens were invented in the 1970s at the University of Kentucky, and they haven't hit true widespread usage until the past few years, I'm not expecting to see this on the market anytime soon.