AI assistants such as Alexa and Siri have made it very easy to control smart devices, just given them a voice command and they will do the needful. However, one can certainly think of a possibility where it’s even speaking out loud isn’t required and whatever you want to do just happens. Perhaps for that you would require a device that can read minds and while AlterEgo doesn’t quite do that, it can let you control smart devices like a cyborg.
AlterEgo is a prototype device created by Arnav Kapur, a graduate student at the MIT Media Lab. The device is attached to the side of his head and it allows him to surf through TV channels, make chess moves, solve math problems, change the colors of light bulbs, order a pizza, and more. He does all of that without having to touch anything or give a voice command.
What AlterEgo does is that it picks up the tiny electrical signals that are produced by the small movements of our neck and facial muscles when we talk or read silently to ourselves. These signals are then transmitted to a computer via Bluetooth where algorithms decode and execute them. The bone conduction headphones provide the user feedback.
Kapur’s idea behind this project was to create a new kind of computer that demands less of your attention than a smartphone or an assistant-powered smart home device does. He adds that this technology can also be used to let two or more people communicate silently with each other.
Kapur and the team are now setting up studies at hospitals and rehabilitation centers to see how the technology can aid people with speech impairments. It remains a research project for now but the technology could prove to be very useful down the road.
Filed in . Read more about Artificial Intelligence. Source: cbsnews