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Bobby Travis

This is a post by Bobby Travis, who wrote with me at 40Tech from 2009 through 2012. Bobby has since moved on to bigger and better things, but I've left all of his great contributions up on the site. - Evan

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Ever wanted a computer to interface directly with your brain? Come on, we’ve all watched science fiction flicks where the mad scientist puts something akin to a noodle-strainer outfitted with wires, resistors and other electronics on top of his head (or on the head of an unwilling victi– err, participant…), and then proceeds to interface with a machine that can control space ships, the weather, or defense systems. Well, Paul Sadja has decided it would be cool to take us there for real.

Enter the C3Vision — Cortically Coupled Computer Vision.

Image by J.J. McCullough

Paul Sajda is a Columbia University professor of Biomedical Engineering and Radiology at the Laboratory for Intelligent Imaging and Neural Computing (who knew that even existed…?), and had this to say about his new toy:

“(The C3V) uses an electroencephalogram cap to monitor brain activity as the person wearing it is shown about 10 images per second. Machine-learning algorithms trained to detect the neurological signals that signify interest in an image are used to analyze this brain activity. By monitoring these signals, the system rapidly ranks the images in terms of how interesting they appear to the viewer. The search is then refined by retrieving other images that are similar to those with the highest rank.”

Basically, he has created a means to tap into user’s brains and, as Curt Hopkins of Read Write Web states, “realize what’s bugging them before they consciously know they’ve been bugged” — and then take action, of course.

What’s most interesting about all of this is the similarity to contextual search and social recommendation engines — and, of course, the possibility that Paul Sadja might really be The Riddler. You know… Batman Forever?

I’m just sayin’.

Your Next Computer Might Be Mad of… Brains! [Read Write Web]