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Technology Could Enable Computers To "Read The Minds" Of Users 121

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the techno-psychics-coming-soon dept.
New techniques under development could allow computers to respond to users' thoughts of frustration or boredom (too much or too little work) by applying functional near-infrared spectroscopy technology, which uses light to monitor brain blood flow as a proxy for user workload stress. Applying this noninvasive, portable imaging technology in new ways, the researchers hope to gain real-time insight into the brain's emotional cues.
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Technology Could Enable Computers To "Read The Minds" Of Users More

Technology Could Enable Computers To "Read The Minds" Of Users

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  • I for one... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 01, 2007 @02:30PM (#20814669)
    Well, the computer already knows what I'm going to write, so why bother?

    • Re:I for one... (Score:5, Funny)

      by WhyDoYouWantToKnow ( 1039964 ) on Monday October 01, 2007 @02:44PM (#20814939)
      I can see it now.

      USER: You mean you can see into my mind.
      COMPUTER: Yes
      USER: And
      COMPUTER: It amazes me how you manage to live in anything that small.

      Quote shamelessly stolen from the Hitchhikers Guide.

    • Not Soviet Russia...
      In Mindreading computer Word writes ewe.

    • Gay Pr0n (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Hey, when you get pictures of guys with their hoohoos up other guys wahhahs, instead of girls hoohahs, we'll know it wasn't an accident, that you were actually thinking about it.

      • Hey, when you get pictures of guys with their hoohoos up other guys wahhahs
        I didn't know six year olds read /.

    • The Whip Cracking Algorithm. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Alien54 ( 180860 ) on Monday October 01, 2007 @09:38PM (#20818915) Journal
      . . . uses light to monitor brain blood flow as a proxy for user workload stress.

      They will use the stress level to monitor if you are providing enough output. Obviously, Maximum Stress(tm) = Maximum Output(tm).

      This feeds directly into the whip cracking algorithm.

    • This would make a great tool in the hiring process. Is the candidate stressed out or calm? What is his mindset?

      What do you all think?

      My god, there are lots of great uses for this technology. You could put it into the rear-view mirror of new cars and project the brain-bloodflow patterns by something like RFID to police. They would then have a good indication if you have been drinking or using drugs. How liberating!

      Let's put this technology into new television sets and send the interaction betwe

  • one step closer (Score:4, Funny)

    by kevin.fowler ( 915964 ) on Monday October 01, 2007 @02:31PM (#20814687) Homepage
    No joke... if my computer scanned my brain and posted random LOLCats when I got sad or bored, my life would be legitimately better.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by PhxBlue ( 562201 )
      I want something like that ... only when I'm about to throw the monitor out the window, the computer will play a .wav file that says, "Don't taze me, bro!"

    • Re:one step closer (Score:5, Funny)

      by protolith ( 619345 ) on Monday October 01, 2007 @03:02PM (#20815209)
      I can just see it, I'm working on some document and the text "TPS Report" shows up. Then 2/3rds of the script for office space is suddenly cluttering the rest of the document.

      I'm not sure I want all of my weird random thoughts actually materializing as I type. Oooo Shiney

      It would get me fired. Especially if I'm working on something related to my degree (geology), Cleavage, Dike, fold and thrust, my pornographic memory does not always conjure up the safe and sane meaning first.

      ...

      lets ride bikes...

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gaspyy ( 514539 )
        About 20 years ago I've read old sci-fi short story (was published in the '60s in brochure-style format, so I don't remember who wrote it). Anyway, it was about the scientists building a new fancy car that among other features was controlled by thought. One day, one of the test drivers was killed when the prototype jumped over a cliff. They try to figure out what went wrong. Turns out the driver was amazed by the beautiful scenery and thought something along the lines of 'I wish I could fly over these mount

  • Finally ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by foobsr ( 693224 ) on Monday October 01, 2007 @02:31PM (#20814699) Homepage Journal
    ... the tinfoil hat will become useful.

    CC.

  • understand users (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 01, 2007 @02:32PM (#20814707)
    I am a developer and a user and I still can't understand what I want, much less what the average user is thinking... Good Luck!

  • Monitor blood flow? (Score:4, Funny)

    by GuyMannDude ( 574364 ) on Monday October 01, 2007 @02:32PM (#20814713) Journal

    I'm glad they are restricting the sensors to monitor brain blood flow while I'm at the computer. When my employeer starts automatically monitoring blood flow below my waist when I'm surfing online, that's when I'll start to get a bit worried. :)

    GMD

    • But since blood flow to the brain and blood flow below the waist are inversely proportional, they could probably figure it out anyhow... ;)
    • "When my employeer starts automatically monitoring blood flow below my waist when I'm surfing online, that's when I'll start to get a bit worried."

      Tape flow-limiting pictures of Janet Reno and Roseanne Barr around your cubicle. Problem solved.
      • Please, for the sake of humanity, don't ever make another post that has "Roseanna Barr" and "flow" in the same sentence.
  • Let me know when you work out the image recognition problem, then we'll delve into what the image means...

  • Yeah, sure... but (Score:3, Interesting)

    by zappepcs ( 820751 ) on Monday October 01, 2007 @02:34PM (#20814753) Journal
    will the computer send the appropriate message to software vendors? Would this technology have been able to cause clippy to die a horrible death? Would the detection of boredom and frustration and other mental states actually be translated to something useful? Will it help use make sense of the 'load letter' error? Will see see reports on CNN stating that 79.35% of Exchange users are confused, thus leading to the conclusion that the more intelligent you the more likely you use Thunderbird?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cp.tar ( 871488 )

      will the computer send the appropriate message to software vendors? Would this technology have been able to cause clippy to die a horrible death? Would the detection of boredom and frustration and other mental states actually be translated to something useful? Will it help use make sense of the 'load letter' error? Will see see reports on CNN stating that 79.35% of Exchange users are confused, thus leading to the conclusion that the more intelligent you the more likely you use Thunderbird?

      I don't know.

      I just hope no-one will think up a way to deliver commercials using this technology.

      That would be a vicious cycle indeed: you're bored; let's get you some ads; you look even more bored; let's get you *more* ads...

      :shudder:

  • old news (Score:4, Funny)

    by rucs_hack ( 784150 ) on Monday October 01, 2007 @02:35PM (#20814767)
    My windows machine computer already does this. It uses an incredibly precise mind reading method to determine the absolute worst moment to shut down/blue up, or provide me with a handy dialog box explaining that the current app doesn't want to play any more and has taken my data home with it.

  • Clippy? (Score:3, Funny)

    by clarkkent09 ( 1104833 ) on Monday October 01, 2007 @02:35PM (#20814773)
    Using my mind reading technology I can tell that you are under extremely high level of stress. Would you like to:

    a) Take a nap
    b) Have a healthy snack
    c) Continue working

    AAAAARGH *fist crashes through the monitor*

  • 1st Practical appl. of DXdiag 3D cube found! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Zymergy ( 803632 ) * on Monday October 01, 2007 @02:35PM (#20814787)
    "While wearing the fNIRS device, test subjects viewed a multicolored cube consisting of eight smaller cubes with two, three or four different colors. As the cube rotated onscreen, subjects counted the number of colored squares in a series of 30 tasks."
  • I don't know what all the hub-bub is on this story. Machines have been reading our minds for a while now. Take my car for instance: It knows that I need to change my oil, so it tells me by stopping the engine at the most inconvenient time. My grill always knows when I am having a cookout, and this inconveniently runs out of propane right in the middle of cooking. Right in the middle of a most important cell call, the towers sense this and decide that's when to lose the signal.

    See, nothing new here. Move on.

  • Patch it into clippy. (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    It seems you want to strangle me. Would you like some assistance?
  • Seriously, it'll probably be an easy read. Once self aware computers arise, it'll probably take them no time at all to discern the nature of 99% of everyone alive.
  • This, plus IM plus social networking plus Microsoft =

    "Your boyfriend is thinking about porn: Allow or Deny"
  • So it would ordinarily detect that I'm bored and give me more work. But then I'm surfing Slashdot and Reddit to alleviate the boredom, so I don't appear bored. Whew!
  • This will save me searching for pr0n. Now my computer will do it for me.

    Yay! This is a major breakthrough.

  • I can't be the only one (Score:5, Insightful)

    by techpawn ( 969834 ) on Monday October 01, 2007 @02:42PM (#20814915) Journal
    who thought it was an oxymoron to see "non-invasive" and "computer brain scan"?
    • The "non-invasive" bit is probably the medical "non-invasive" in that nothing pierces the skin and nothing goes into any orifices.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by techpawn ( 969834 )
        I understand, it's still the thought of tech that can read my mind seems rather more invasive than I'd like.

    • While medically non-invasive, I'd quit ANY firm that tried to get me to wear one.

      As stated in the article, this is to boost "efficiency". Can I get bored doing many repetitive tasks that IT entails? Sure. Do those "boring tasks" pay the bills at the shop? You betcha. Nothing wrong there other than business as usual.

      What if your boss, at your entry interview, stated that they reserved the right to search your house at any time... would you be as eager about the job? I'm firmly convinced that my body conten

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by avirrey ( 972127 )
        I'd quit ANY firm that tried to get me to wear one.

        Oh, come on..just think, do you really belive the measurement of the 'efficiency' can distiguish from you reading an email to you reading /.? Your headband wearing overlords will praise you for all your efficiency while you unnoticeably read away on /. What a sweet job!

        --
        X's and O's for all my foes.

        • Your headband wearing overlords will praise you for all your efficiency while you unnoticeably read away on /.

          What worries me more is their asking why my brain's only active at work while reading Slashdot...

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by BVis ( 267028 )

        I'm firmly convinced that my body contents are even less of my company's business than my home contents. I show up sober and ready to go. What happened with me over the weekend is none of their concern, as long as I'm not handing out their properties.

        Your company may not care, but their liability insurance company sure as hell cares. After all, your odds of losing an arm in some freak spreadsheet accident are ten times higher if you smoked a joint 45 days ago. (Current widely used testing can't distinguis

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by ^_^x ( 178540 )
      As I see it if these ever become widespread, it'd be like using a newer Mac...

      Sit down at it, tear off a piece of electrical tape, and slap it over the mandatory webcam because OFF MEANS OFF AND UNPLUG IS NOT AN OPTION.
  • It appears you are about to throw me out of the Window! Perhaps some mood-enhancing serotonin reuptake inhibitors will help?

  • How can this thing tell the difference of me being stressed out because of my home life versus me being stressed out due to my work life?

    Until it can distinguish between at least those two types of stress, then it's probably only useful for the HR dept. to help you in their "life programs" if your employer offers them.

  • Scenario (Score:5, Funny)

    by TheRealMindChild ( 743925 ) on Monday October 01, 2007 @02:44PM (#20814945) Homepage Journal
    Boss: Look, we got a report from our monitors that you were... um... sexually excited, two days ago around 3pm. Just about the time we heard reports of grunting sounds from your cube.
    Employee: uhhhhhhhhhh
    Boss: This prompted us to install a logger on your machine. We were able to get your VPN password you were using to connect to your home, and noticed you have a thing for zombie midget porn.
    Employee: errr
    Boss: We were also able to detect that your... libido... rise when the one-legged secretary delivers your mail to your cube. Employee: ...

    Boss: Wait till you see my wife's mother. She is coming in here with my wife in about fifteen minutes. You'll like her. She was in a car wreck a year or so ago and had a skin graft on 80% of her body!
  • When I read the title, I immediately thought of Mirror Neurons [wikipedia.org], which enable primates to imitate and empathize with other members of their species. It'd be cool if the researchers were building a silicon mirror-neuron system, but alas, such is not the case.

  • Bad idea. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Trillan ( 597339 ) on Monday October 01, 2007 @02:48PM (#20815017) Homepage Journal
    Text-based interfaces prove that most users couldn't read.

    Graphic interfaces prove that most users can't understand abstractions.

    Mind reading interfaces will only prove that most users can't think.

  • What Question Mark (Score:3, Funny)

    by avirrey ( 972127 ) on Monday October 01, 2007 @02:49PM (#20815025)
    Personally comma I don't trust this thing period I mean really comma if the voice-recognition program can get it straight comma what makes me thing this thingamadongle on top of my head is going to get my thought pattern down correctly question mark question mark question mark It's just silly period

    Yes comma I did train the word thingamadongle period

    --
    X's and O's for all my foes.

  • Useless without context (Score:4, Insightful)

    by zeoslap ( 190553 ) on Monday October 01, 2007 @02:50PM (#20815035) Homepage
    What is the device supposed to do with the information without knowing the context? Am I stressed because of the call I've just taken, the news story I've just read or my inability to use a specific app. Neat tech but good luck trying to use it to do anything useful.
    • It is one thing to detect frustration and boredom while in the midst of a test almost perfectly designed to produce frustration and boredom. It is quite another to try to detect the same things in a more-or-less random context. At least today, this technology is probably useless for that... and I for one am just as happy to leave it that way.

  • In other news.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by nobodyman ( 90587 ) on Monday October 01, 2007 @02:55PM (#20815113) Homepage
    Sony and Microsoft are developing competing formats for reading your mind.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by MiniMike ( 234881 )
      Will Mac users minds stop working at the next update if they've had any unauthorized thoughts?

      Make your own 'when did they start' jokes below...

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      Sony and Microsoft are developing competing formats for reading your mind.

      Nintendo has bypassed this step and gone straight to making a device that will just make you happy.
  • What is the point of a computer being able to know if a user is frustrated? So it can be less annoying? More helpful? Why doesn't it behave like that all the time regardless of how frustrated the user is?
  • PC: "You want me to stick the mouse where? Now, now, there is no need to think like that. Here, play some minesweeper..."
  • Neat... Cameras, wiretapping... Thoughtcrime
  • Especially when this is typical of the email they send:

    Subject: Phones not working
    Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2007 8:40:42 -0700 (11:40 EDT)

    HELP!!!! PLEASE!!!!
    That's it. That was the whole thing, minus the guy's name. Or how about

    Subject: directory
    Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2007 09:46:50 -0500 (10:46 EDT)

    I am pushing the 'dir' button. WHY???

    I don't know why, ma'am.

    Seriously. I think if could peer into the "mind" of my users, I'd just see a saw going back and forth through a log, or one of those cymbal-clapping wind-up monkey toys. I can't imagine there's much else going on up there.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Geam ( 30459 )
      That looks very fimiliar!

      Sent: Monday, October 01, 2007 12:25 PM
      Subject: Are we down?
      There was no body text.

  • Hype (Score:3, Insightful)

    by PingXao ( 153057 ) on Monday October 01, 2007 @03:09PM (#20815351)
    Getting a computer to read and understand text or understand speech is still aways off, never mind mind reading. I have no doubt it will happen some day, but things on the interpretation and understanding front have a long, long way to go. Speech recognition has been stagnant for 10 years. OCR still requires many hours of human cleanup and tweaking. Natural language translation is a field that seems to be advancing faster than the others, but it, too, has a long way to go.

    The inputs to all of the above are well known. Reading signals from implanted sensors, and interpreting their meaning is above and beyond the call of hype.
    • Not to mention the fact that there are well established grammar rules for written language the computer can use to make guesses as to what a user is saying. There is no indication (to my knowledge) that this grammar is written into our thoughts (Pinker fans feel free to disagree). Even if there is some grammar, whose to say it will be sensible... I imagine my thoughts going something like this:
      bananas
      monkeys
      beer
      sexy nurse
      beer
      sandwiches
      sexy nurse
      To keep with the clippy theme, what would clippy think of thi
  • now hackers can have help breaking into your pc by putting the computer in a new context, by putting you in a bad mood, for example

    enter the "mood altered state hack" .. which, btw, is actually the basis for most all interaction between husbands, wives, children, and boyfriends and girlfriends

    so this development is either a great step forward for cognitive science, or a great step backwards for the professional computer-based work environment, depending on your point of view

    personally, i interact with the c

  • But.. (Score:2)

    by Ilex ( 261136 )
    Remember you must think in Russian!

  • Automated interrogation (Score:3, Interesting)

    by dpbsmith ( 263124 ) on Monday October 01, 2007 @03:15PM (#20815417) Homepage
    Grand... combine this with the pain ray gun [slashdot.org] and you have the makings of a fully-automated interrogation device.
  • The computer is reading your freaking brain - how is that not invasive?

  • Limited Use At Best (Score:4, Informative)

    by moore.dustin ( 942289 ) on Monday October 01, 2007 @03:32PM (#20815639) Homepage
    Everyone is quick to dream up what technology like this could yield, but we are far from being able to apply this technology into anything truly useful.

    We have an unimaginable amount of information on the brain anatomy and biology, but no real idea on how the brain works at a fundamental level. That information is vital to being able to make intelligent technology that can actually make use of stuff like is discussed in TFA. I am sure many have already read it, but there is a great book on the subject called On Intelligence [amazon.com] by Jeff Hawkins. It talks about the study of the brain and why current attempts to create AI are doomed to failure.

    Anyways, I thought I should mention the book as it opened my eyes and gave me great insight into the industry and our very remarkable brains. :)

    • If I had one of those things on my head now, it would pop something up that said:

      No, TFA isn't the f@#$#@#$$@#$#@g article...it's a three letter acronym that means, errr, I have no idea either!

      Hmmm...

    • "Take a break" programs like those anti-RSI things like gnome-typing-monitor?
  • They can't patent this. I claim prior art.

    http://packetstormsecurity.org/unix-humor/awesome.unix.chdir.program.html [packetstormsecurity.org]

  • A lot of people are stressed out in the airport, so it would not be that useful there. But entrances to government buildings at home or abroad (such as embassies) could benefit...

    "That guy is awfully nervous. Let's take another look at his backpack..."

    • Maybe he's nervous because there's a bunch of low-paid hired goons slouching around looking for excuses to search him and possibly brand him as a terrorist under some obscure, vaguely-defined law.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mi ( 197448 )

        a bunch of low-paid hired goons slouching around looking for excuses to search him and possibly brand him as a terrorist under some obscure, vaguely-defined law.

        Please, name one occasion, when this happened... Thanks!

        • Every freaking time I go to Hartsfield International and try to get through the little security pillbox on the way to a flight? How's that? I fly two or three times a year and I have never been able to get past them without being searched at least, and questioned at most. You're damn right I'm nervous after one or two iterations of that crap.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by mi ( 197448 )

            No, I was asking for occasions, when anybody was "named terrorist under some obscure law". Got any examples?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )
      Excellent. Now when you go through security instead of just walking through the metal detector, removing your shoes and getting patted down we'll get to have an optical cortical scan. It takes about an hour, can hurt (the probes have to stay pressed pretty hard against your scalp) and it has a lot of trouble with hair, so if you've got lots you might just have to have your head shaved.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mi ( 197448 )

        ... we'll get to have an optical cortical scan. It takes about an hour, can hurt ...

        Uhm, no, that's not how the article describes the new computer systems: "Applying this noninvasive, portable imaging technology in new ways, the researchers hope to gain real-time insight into the brain's emotional cues."

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )
          It's realtime once you get everything set up. It's also picky. The lasers and detectors have to be applied carefully and you need baseline data. I collaborate with a lab that does optical brain imaging, by the way.
  • The problem is, while the computer can read the mind, it cannot read anything useful. Its like trying to read DCT blocks in JPEG files directly - you cannot do anything useful with it until you know you need to IDCT it. Its even more relevant with entropy coding; without the proper model you cannot do _anything_ at all with the bitstream.

    Thus, reading the mind is actually the easy part. Making sense out of the information is the real deal. It is even harder because brain "data" doesn't seem to be binary, or
  • God please just let me die before my boss gets ahold of this technology.
  • Impossible until computers are given or have gained consciousness. Then, I kill it. Man is the greatest wonder of all, yet it is always the last question we ask.
  • Maybe it's just an editorial thing, but I'm sick of every new brain scanning technology or application thereof being headlined as 'mind reading.' We're quite a ways from the point where we can pull anything like a comprehensible, complete thought from someone's head--being able to monitor blood flow or track EEGs or whatever doesn't give you much more insight into what the person is really thinking than a polygraph machine would. So enough baseless hype, if you please.
  • We won't hear about this for years and years. 20 years from now, when this can actually be accomplished, there will be another article.

    Someone on slashdot will claim it is a dupe.
  • I know it's great fun to slag something which can be interpreted as "Computers can read your mind" when they're so bad at doing what they were designed to do already - but here's why this development actually *could* be quite useful.

    First, if you've ever studied verbal interrogation techniques (or even just read "The Sleeping Doll" by Jeffery Deaver), you know that detecting stress as extremely useful meta information to what is being said by the subject. Good interrogators must rely on visual cues to detec
  • What about those people that have ADHD? How would there browser keep up?
  • There's a much easier test for frustration when I'm at my computer:

            IF OS == "Windows" THEN
                  Frustration = "VERY HIGH"
            ENDIF
  • Well, even it's mostly off-topic, I'm still waiting for a kind of mind-mote that connects to a game console/PC and allows to play games designed for it.
    Because right now, this niche still belongs to (and has for a few years) pricey weird new-age relax yourself-out-of-your-worldly-misery games (google biofeedback games for yourself).
    I mean, a combination of classical inputs (for firing-slashing) and biofeedback (you do not heal if you do not relax pal !) could make for some awesome combination, couldn't it
  • I already personify many computers as "moody."
    I don't need them to be really, actually, sensitive.

    I like the fact that rm -r -f / always does the same thing, no matter what mood I'm in.
    Maybe I really am angry enough to destroy the mail server today. Let's use this technology on the robot maids instead, and leave emotional discretion up to the humans, ok?

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