Think about it - Thoughful Computing

[GlenBrittle]

I got this article this morning. Below is the email I sent to them.

Good Morning,

I just read your article online at http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=53191&PageMem=1 .

This is really exciting .

My name is Glen Brittle . I have ALS (Lou Gehrigs). I am still walking and talking, for now.

My future will come to a point where I will be paralyzed completely. I am interested in your technology.

Have you been approached by the medical community yet ?

Being a IT manager / programmer , maybe I can help with your development of software, testing , be a guinea pig.

Please respond.


Glen Brittle

[Big Mike]

I've been reading about these brain-wave controlled technological devices. It sounds very exciting. None of us want to be paralyzed but being able to communicate effectively with the outside world would make it much more bearable. :-)

[Jerome Best]

Glen,
I don't know if those guys ever got back to you... or will. But by the sound of it, you could pretty well do the whole thing yourself.
Getting the data is not the hard part, its sorting out the signal from all the noise. Picking up faint signals is routinely done. Example, Voyager 2 is now 16.4 billion miles from Earth, broadcasting at a piddley 23 watts. But its still coming in loud and clear. Capturing a torrent of data from the human brain is not the hard part; the big challenge is tuning in on what we want.... a good job for a cunning programmer!!

[trfogey]

There are several companies working in this field that have already produced devices for the marketplace. However, this is the first company that I've seen making the claim that they are reading brain states as their control mechanism. The other companies I've seen in this product space have been working more along the lines of "neuroswitches". I wish these guys luck, but I'm not holding my breath.