Type With Your Brain — Like Stephen Hawking

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Type With Your Brain — Like Stephen Hawking

Posted by timothy on Thursday July 5, 2012 @12:48AM from the please-don't-steer-my-car-this-way dept.

Diggester writes that a group of researchers from Universiteit Maastricht's Faculty of Psychology & Neuroscience Department of Neurocognition "have invented a system that translates thoughts into letters. This really is an incredible breakthrough for any type of handicap, from serious motor impairment to debilitating speech. The system has been in real-world testing and is an extraordinary success. The patients are set up to look at a screen of the alphabet, thinking about each letter for a period of time; they should be able to think-type in real time. While it is not near the speed of actual typing, it is the only program of its kind and can only get better." "Of its kind" being relative, reader cylonlover writes "Tech startup Neurovigil announced last April that Stephen Hawking was testing the potential of its iBrain device to allow the astrophysicist to communicate through brainwaves alone. Next week Professor Hawking and iBrain inventor, Dr Philip Low from Stanford University, present their findings at the Francis Crick Memorial Conference in Cambridge, England. In anticipation, Gizmag spoke to Dr Low about the potential applications of the iBrain."

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Prehaps farster? by Anne_Nonymous · 2012-07-05 00:53 · Score: 5, Funny

>> While it is not near the speed of actual typing,
Ubviously you haben"t seem us type.
You'll need a huge wheelchair by Xenna · 2012-07-05 00:54 · Score: 3, Informative

That Maastricht discovery is based on an fMRI scanner. AFAIK these scanners are hugely expensive as well as hugely huge. That kind of limits the usefulness in the near future.
1. Re:You'll need a huge wheelchair by radtea · 2012-07-05 03:20 · Score: 2
  
  And don't forget: I'm typing with my brain right now. I've been typing with my brain for years, and so have lots of other people.
  As a matter of interest, if you aren't typing with your brain, what are you typing with? Your liver? Your kidneys?
  What I haven't been doing is "using a few million dollars of highly specialized gear to type without using my hands", which is what this story is actually about, along with all these other ridiculous "using ONLY your brain" claims written by people who seem not to have used even their brains.
  
  --
  Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
Obligatory by alexbgreat · 2012-07-05 00:54 · Score: 4, Funny

Obligatory : Reginald Barclay
Great Idea . . . by OnionFighter · 2012-07-05 00:57 · Score: 2

Terrible name.
Re:Great source of randomness! by windcask · 2012-07-05 01:00 · Score: 3, Funny

Considering the high rates of pregnancy and sexual preoccupation amongst teens, couldn't young boys be accurately described as Random Seed Generators?
new name by slashmydots · 2012-07-05 01:02 · Score: 3, Interesting

Maybe they should call it the eBrain instead of iBrain since Apple didn't make it. If Apple did make it, the EULA would say they own your brain.
Stephen Hawking doesn't type with his brain by rodrigoandrade · 2012-07-05 01:03 · Score: 5, Informative

Instead, his computer screen has a cursor moving across a QWERTY grid. When it's on the letter/word he wants, a very faint twitch from his cheek, which is the equivalent of a mouseclick, selects the letter/word.
1. Re:Stephen Hawking doesn't type with his brain by rodrigoandrade · 2012-07-05 01:08 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  Replying to myself to add info. The cheek movement is captured by a tiny camera hanging from his glasses. Furthermore, I never saw electrodes attached to his head, which proves his brilliant brain isn't used for typing.
2. Re:Stephen Hawking doesn't type with his brain by SilentStaid · 2012-07-05 02:16 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  He's helping them test it. It doesn't say he currently uses it. RTFA or even the summary, please.
Re:Why should I like him? by SuricouRaven · 2012-07-05 01:18 · Score: 4, Informative

Because Hawkins recognizes the importance of science education and outreach, maintains a media presence and published books to help laypeople understand at least a rough outline of theoretical physics. Higgs just published really arcane mathematics. Arcane mathematics is a very useful thing to have, certainly, it is what drives science and technology forwards, but it isn't going to motivate people to get into science as a career. Hawkins did math too, and I'm not even close to qualified to judge who did the most useful math, but I know that Hawkins has done a lot more to raise the standard of science education in the wider culture, and that makes him the winner by my judgement.
It will never catch on. by Harold+Halloway · 2012-07-05 01:25 · Score: 4, Funny

Not if it requires people to use their brains.
Re:Why should I like him? by WillDraven · 2012-07-05 01:32 · Score: 3, Interesting

Yeah, I don't see how anybody can talk shit about a man who is doing Carl Sagan's job just by twitching his cheek...

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The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by cant_get_a_good_nick · 2012-07-05 02:45 · Score: 2

This was a book, written by a man with a stroke. All he had control over was his blinking, so he had to blink for every letter. It was estimated that it took 200,000 blinks.
For some reason, when I read the story title, I thought about this guy... there are many people that would benefit from this tech.