UI&us is about User Interface Design, User Experience design and the cognitive psychology behind design in general. It's written by Keith Lang, co-founder of Skitch; now a part of Evernote.  His views and opinions are his own and do not represent in any way the views or opinions of any company. 

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Sunday
Apr192009

Mind-reading Interfaces

The Neural Impulse Actuator, by OCZ Technology, lets you interact with the contraction of various face muscles. From Wikipedia:

The name Neural Impulse Actuator implies that the signals originate from some neuronal activity, however, what is actually captured is a mixture of muscle, skin and nerve activity including sympathetic and parasympathetic components that have to be summarized as biopotentials rather than pure neural signals.


So I'm a bit confused myself on whether to call this a 'mind-reading' interface or a 'muscle-reading' interface. Perhaps it's something in-between. What is clear is this genre of interface appears commercially viable for the mass market; sold first as hardcore gaming interface, later to infiltrate mainstream OS usage. This is a whole new world of Interaction Design.

A nice intro to what I'd call true 'mind-reading' technology in the following 60 Minutes story:


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