Gadget Tracks Brainwaves As You Watch TV

Taking a cue from A Clockwork Orange, San Francisco neuromarketing firm EmSense has launched what it says is "the first ever scalable, non-invasive psychological and brainwave measurement technology — made specifically for market research." The EmBand measures your brain activity, your emotional responses, and your level of engagement in what you are watching on TV. The collected data is then sold to marketers who can come up with more interesting ads to be skipped over with your DVR.

Comments

Eh.

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

I've often had ideas involving marketing people and strategically placed electrodes; but this wasn't quite what I had in mind. Pity.

That was disappointing...

[Haedrian]

Was reading this with quite some interest. I wonder what they could do with this. User Adaptive systems which help choose films you might like based on the parts you enjoyed. Some way of choosing channels automatically based on your mood...

"The collected data is then sold to marketers". End of fantasy.

Ugh.

[RockoTDF]

Like most "brainwave" technology (ie game controllers) this is a bunch of horse shit designed by people who are clearly clueless on these matters. Electrodes are not well placed, individuals at home probably have no idea how to put it on right, the list goes on. Not to mention the lack of a system to account for eyeblinks. Head movement can screw things up, as can cell phone use. Seriously, if they took a day of psychophysiology they would know this. The fact that it was started by folks from MIT is an embarrassment to that institution.