Just in time for the influx of sedentary oprah viewers, [adam wilson] built a brain interface that allows you to post twitter messages. the electrode cap monitors the user’s brain functions to determine where they’re looking. The display slowly flashes each letter in the alphabet. the user focuses on the letter they want and when it flashes the cap can pick up the resulting impulse.
It’s a long process and the average user can only do ten characters a minute i.e. 14 minutes to use all 140 characters in a twitter post. It’s interesting research and shows how far we still need to go with neural interfaces. The researchers note that twitter’s forced brevity levels the playing field between locked-in patients and normal users. A video of the device in use is available on the nitro blog.
Hackaday (thanks Michelle)
Wouldn’t it make more sense to flash rows in turn, then columns in turn? It would take two detections per letter, but each detection would be much faster than scanning the whole alphabet one at a time…
or morse code with eyelid closure or jaw clench… or tracking pupils..or some form of muscular contraction. Every patient must have some form of muscular control… (?)
Wait. So this means you have to use your brain for Twitter? Doesn’t that go against its very essence?
Does it really matter that you can Twitter with this? The fact the technology exists is astounding. Really, is it necessary to involve Twitter to make this sort of thing interesting?