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'Telekinetic' App Controls Google Glass With Your Mind


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A woman wearing Google Glass and a device that measures the brain's electroencephalogram activity.

A new app enables users of Google Glass to control the device using only their thoughts.

A new "telekinetic" app has been launched to enable Google Glass users to control the device using only their thoughts. Free, open source software called MindRDR links Google Glass with a brainwave-reading headset that enables users to operate the device by concentrating rather than using voice commands or tilting their head.

So far, the app can only take photos and publish them to the Internet, but it could eventually lead to a larger number of touch-free interfaces for consumer technology. MindRDR may enable people with limited moving or speaking abilities to more easily communicate with others.

"Most interfaces require quite a high level of dexterity or for you to communicate verbally in order to use them, so a mind-control interface has the opportunity to bring digital to those who may not be able to use those," says consultant Ben Aldred.

MindRDR does not actually read people's thoughts, but relies on a portable headset device developed by NeuroSky that measures the brain's electroencephalogram (EEG) activity. Google Glass collects the EEG data output via a Bluetooth connection and uses it as a signal to control a line on the device's screen. When a user concentrates hard enough, the line moves to the top of the screen and activates the camera.

From The Engineer (United Kingdom)
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Abstracts Copyright © 2014 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA


 

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