Herbert Mühlburger's Weblog

Adam Wilson, biomedical engineering doctoral student at University of Wisconsin-Madison has developed a brain to computer interface which makes it possible to directly write tweets through thoughts. ReadWriteWeb writes:

Technically, what Wilson did was come up with an interface combining an Electroencephalogram, or brain wave monitor, with an on screen keyboard for selecting letters. The system lights up each key on the keyboard but is able to notice a difference in brain activity when the desired letter for input is lit. Wilson compares it to clicking through multiple letters when texting on a mobile phone.

Once you’ve found a new way to input text – what are you going to do with it? Use it to Twitter, of course!

Clearly, there’s some gimmickry going on in the news of Wilson’s interface. Who knows if this is better or worse than saying that a technology is developed to assist physically disabled people when it’s really going to be used by the military? Wilson does say that the technology will be helpful for people with active brains but immobile bodies. Now they’ll be able to Twitter, among other things, he says. Fair enough.

[UPDATE] Here is a little video showing how the Brain Twitter Interface workes:

Personally I think it is a great idea to use the currently hyped microblogging service for research activities.

(via ReadWriteWeb)

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