15 ms·

Facebook is building brain-computer interfaces for typing and skin-hearing

63 points by pearlsteinj 9y ago

jasonkostempski 9y ago
I had the idea of using skin as input for sound and light a long time ago as a kid. I've since seen something using the tongue but not much else. It'll be interesting to see what comes out of it. How many nerve endings are connected to the brain through eyes and ears vs skin (and what the heck is 2 m2 supposed to mean)? As for the brain interface, outside of helping people with severe disabilities, no thank you.
- markyc 9y ago
  2 m2 probably means two square meters
- daleco 9y ago
  I worked on vibrotactile and electrotactile technologies (Mostly on the tongue, belly or chest...) for years. The most sensitive part of your body is the tongue, that's where you would get the best resolution. You could turn a b/w images, process it and lower the resolution, then turn the white into levels of stimulation. Unfortunately, the resolution on the tongue display is 20x20. It has its limitation, in a controlled environment we trained people to read 4-5 letter words in few seconds or distinguish shapes. For spatial orientation, it's better to use systems similar to a lidar and use a tactile vest to inform the user how close is the collision. The best use of these systems were for training formula 1 drivers (clue for shifting, braking, timing...), force feedbacks for telesurgery or restauring proprioception for exoskeleton users. https://www.ihmc.us/research/multi-sensory-multi-modal-neural-interfaces/ https://www.ihmc.us/research/multi-sensory-multi-modal-neura... https://www.sages.org/meetings/annual-meeting/abstracts-archive/an-anthro-centric-multisensory-interface-for-sensory-augmentation-of-tele-surgery/ https://www.sages.org/meetings/annual-meeting/abstracts-arch... http://downloads.hindawi.com/journals/jr/2011/284352.pdf http://downloads.hindawi.com/journals/jr/2011/284352.pdf
brilliantcode 9y ago
This would be very interesting to see from a security stand point of view. We are introducing another attack vector. ex. Imagine if you could phish someone's brain.
- keyme 9y ago
  You'd have to train yourself to "think privately" now... Most people don't even know how to text privately. This may truly be a dystopian nightmare.
  - tgragnato 9y ago
    This is already a dystopian nightmare ... Technology is pervasive Smartphones are the most used technological objects (everywhere, always, repeatedly, compulsively, in the subway, on a bus, in a queue, by car, in a restaurant, in a break). VR is massive, augmented reality is not (think about Google Glass): it seems that this sector has picked up the witness by reaching in no time extraordinary results and a public success that increased reality has completely missed. It will be that we are tired of the often difficult and oppressive reality, and instead of increasing it, we want to forget it, evade it and slip completely into an increasingly credible and perfect virtual reality. If this is not a dystopian nightmare ... Drones, artificial intelligence, biotechnology prostheses, wearable computing, automation, sex-bots. The urban layout has changed Vertical development with skyscrapers, horizontal developments with the sprawl and the hinterland. Increased air pollution, gap between rich and poor, extreme difference between some neighborhoods. Cities are becoming cyberpunk, and some have been around for some time. Hacking, surveillance, cyber war NSA, Snowden, Prism, Anonymous, the US government hacking the network of my last university, the Golden Shield Project, leaks, whistleblowers, the power of the ad tech corporations. The multinationals Large business conglomerates closely control the market by often enforcing laws, exploiting the underdeveloped work of innumerable employees by compelling them to work at the limits of slavery. All of this, of course, is aimed at the production of highly prestigious technology objects marketed at prices often overwhelmed by the iconographic presence of the brand, a new divinity created and powered by advertising and fetishically adored by conditioned masses. "Think privately" is something most people are not able to do right here, right now. The possibility that Facebook might try (in a future) to exploit my brain is only the last drop in a dystopian sea.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
ganfortran 9y ago
Good device to start a reality show, Brain Honesty.
cs702 9y ago
I checked the date, but nope, it's not April Fool's today. So apparently, yes, FaceBook is working on devices that will allow you to type with your brain. In return, FaceBook will need from you only access to your thoughts, and maybe your moods and emotions too? Rest assured, advertisers will happily pay for them.
- lordCarbonFiber 9y ago
  The ability to use BCI != ability to access your thoughts. The technology doesn't, and probably won't for a long while yet, for the latter to start with. Facebook already has access to active user's thoughts, moods, and emotions anyway; they share them willingly and in a much more machine friendly fashion than brain waves. Brain enabled typing is going to be the future of hands free devices, and you're better off trying to beat them to market than lamenting the "evil facebook boogieman".
  - johnsonjo 9y ago
    I agree this does look like a very good technology for hands free communication. I'm still worried about the possible cons. So, do you think it would likely take more than a software update for it's ability to access your thoughts? Because, even if the technology isn't quite there yet if they can just somewhere down the road update these things over the air with these capabilities it seems a little frightening.
  - cs702 9y ago
    Ah yes, except that (1) people who use such an interface will meld with it, and (2) we're talking about brain sensors on you.
    - lordCarbonFiber 9y ago
      Most input sensors are "brain sensors" in the most reductive sense. There's nothing spooky about brain sensors. You can buy them today, as meditation tools. I have a long running personal project thread to to use mine as a typing interface. It's 100% possible with current technology and not in the least bit dystopian. Interested parties can read your thoughts much more reliably by just parsing these public posts than trying to build a model to get something more specific than "discrete input A" out of brain waves.
jmagaro88 9y ago
Time for occlumency training...
ruddct 9y ago
An advertising company wants mainline access to my brain and vital signs. What could go wrong? (Note: You know you're getting old when you start to get concerned about the privacy of these things. If you'd told me when I started in tech that people would be voluntarily buying always-on microphones sold by advertising companies and putting them in their houses, I would've called you insane. Who knows, maybe this will work).
- colmvp 9y ago
  I look forward to the day when we start having to develop the Ghostery for preventing ads that track our identity via facial/gait recognition, and the brain and skin.
  - kakarot 9y ago
    Why Ghostery? There are addons now that provide better functionality without the awful redesigned interface.
- Malic 9y ago
  What could go wrong? One word: Blipverts
- maggiedean 9y ago
  Nothing could go wrong, don't worry about. While you enjoy your sleep, make sure you enjoy it while wearing Lightspeed Briefs! For today's active lifestyle, whether you're on the job, or having fun! Lightspeed Briefs!
ben_mann 9y ago
Not clear how they will make a non invasive optical brain interface...
anfractuosity 9y ago
I'm curious about the skin-hearing technology, in the article it mentions 'a system of actuators tuned to 16 frequency bands', does that mean say you'd have 16 actuators each using producing different frequencies? And would the actuators be used on any part of the body?
- AIMunchkin 9y ago
  https://www.thestar.com/life/health_wellness/2008/07/02/emotichair_delivers_good_vibrations_to_deaf.html https://www.thestar.com/life/health_wellness/2008/07/02/emot...
snickerbockers 9y ago
If there's one company I won't let into my brain, it's Facebook.
- Chaebixi 9y ago
  But they're changing* the world! * for some negative value of "change"
daenz 9y ago
“This isn’t about decoding random thoughts. This is about decoding the words you’ve already decided to share by sending them to the speech center of your brain.” Somehow this still doesn't make me feel at ease.
- diminoten 9y ago
  A future skill may be not thinking verbally.
  - isomorph 9y ago
    When I was younger I used to try not to subvocalise (?) my computer passwords, thinking that might stop someone reading my mind. Might start that again
    - someguy101010 9y ago
      Nasa had an article[0] back in 2004 where they could detect what you were saying with sub vocalization on the skin and were already working on technology to read it through cloths back then, so not to get too tinfoil hat but that might not be all that bad of an idea. [0]https://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2004/mar/HQ_04093_subvocal_speech.html https://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2004/mar/HQ_04093_subvocal_...
  - maggiedean 9y ago
    Or vice versa, thinking verbally with intent for external apparatus to receive the thought. How, how many faux pas and freudian slips would occur while people get used to the system! I suspect they will be looked upon similarly as typos are today. After all, you don't have to press send until you're happy with what will be delivered (and if any service doesn't, then they'll quickly be abandoned by their customers).
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- johnsonjo 9y ago
  Yeah, I had the same feeling. Just because it doesn't output my innermost thoughts to text doesn't mean it is not keeping track of said thoughts. As if FaceBook didn't already have enough data about me that could be used unethically.
pinewurst 9y ago
Aluminum foil headgear will soon be in fashion.
sharkweek 9y ago
I deal with OCD of the intrusive thought variety. Sometimes my brain gets stuck in a loop of my deepest fears coming true. In fact, sometimes just a single "trigger" word will get stuck repeating itself over and over in my head. The idea of having a brain-computer interface recording this activity is an absolute non-starter for me. But then again, maybe this would all normalize some of my own mental activity, if it was more public how strange everyone's minds can act at times.
- MarkPNeyer 9y ago
  Here's s technique I've found helpful for intrusive thoughts. It's like stack overflowing your imagination with a vivid internal ritual, which overwrites all the frames containing unpleasant thoughts. I imagine writing the details of the unpleasant thought or image down in vim. This converts the thought to "something I am observing" vs "something i and xperiencing." Then the ritual plays out, where inmagine the same sequence of events: saving the file in vim to disk. Copying the file to a USB memory stic. Putting that stick into a ziploc back. Putting that bag into a specific pocket in my backpack. Getting my backpack and getting on my bike. Biking from my old apartment (where I lived when I developed this technique) and bike down 101 to moffet Air Force base, where I throw the backpack into a conveyor chute to a rock, which launches the backpack into space. Sometimes I had to repeat the ritual a few times, but afterward, the image or thought recedes in intensity.
  - DonHopkins 9y ago
    You should consider using emacs instead of vim, because it can easily handle saving the file to disk, copying it to a USB memory stick, putting it into a ziploc bag, biking it down 101 to Moffet, throwing it onto a conveyer belt into a rocket, and launching it into space, all automatically, in one single keystroke!
- AIMunchkin 9y ago
  I could conceive of a high-fallutin' fidget cube for your mind constructed from this technology. I could also see it used for both a lie detector and a biofeedback tool to defeat its use as such. But what really comes to mind is the final scene in Firefox wherein Mitchell Gant has to subvocalize in Russian to fire the rearward missile on the fancy Russian jet he's stolen.
deepnotderp 9y ago
Brb, investing in tinfoil hat stocks.... On a serious note though, what's to stop Facebook from collecting more information than it claims? It may claim to only be scanning for verbal locomotion, but how can we be guaranteed that they aren't discretely monitoring our reactions to advertisements or whatnot?
- notfried 9y ago
  When the time comes, it will be written there in the Terms & Conditions that they can record your reactions to advertisements and more, and billions will be clicking "I Agree."
- AIMunchkin 9y ago
  Well if they're like Bose, you'll be fine as long as you don't install their helpful app.
mebassett 9y ago
What is unclear (at least to me) is how much of this tech actually exists, and how much FB is simply stating their aspirations. There is such optimism in tech that we take claims like being able to "type at 100 words per minute" without invasive surgery at face value. And there is such cynicism that we are (or at least I am) terrified of the sort of society this would create. But can anyone actively researching this field comment on how feasible this is with invasive surgery, never mind without?
- lucasmullens 9y ago
  With a public announcement and a team of 60, seems like FB is at least convinced it's feasible.
- lordCarbonFiber 9y ago
  100 words perminute seems aspirational to me. You as a consumer, could with ~100$ in off the shelf tech make a system that, given user practice, could do 30 though. Not with subvocalization though; just with basic T9 style typing, just with your thoughts instead of fingers. IMO best I can tell subvocalization is a holy grail of BCI and thus far even DARPA hasn't made much headway. I don't see FB doing better; especially given they have next to no expertise in hardware.
- CoolGuySteve 9y ago
  It won't take long, it will probably happen within our lifetime. But I fully believe our grandchildren will take this technology for granted. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jroQCyWwEgE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jroQCyWwEgE
  - maggiedean 9y ago
    I just got done writing a post that also directly quotes a television series without direct acknowledgement. Actually you linked to the exact scene, so that's better than what I did. Are we pulling down the benchmark for what qualifies as a worthwhile comment on Hacker News? ...Actually, yeah, probably.
- deleted 9y ago
deleted 9y ago
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gremlinsinc 9y ago
The next great frontier for hacking could be hacking brainwaves to get data as you think it--that's pretty scary.
alfonsodev 9y ago
A publication from 3 days ago: "Success in recognizing ddigits and monosyllables with high accurary from brain activity measurement" [1] https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-04/tuot-sir041417.php https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-04/tuot-sir0414... I have an openBCI at home, this is like a huge motivation to finally build the helmet and play often :)
suyash 9y ago
Can anyone share more resources on how BCI works, specially non-invasive (no implants inside brain) BCI ? Papers, blogs etc
- T-A 9y ago
  A few links from recent years: http://www.autodidacts.io/neurotech-hardware-roundup-eeg-bci-tdcs-neurofeedback/ http://www.autodidacts.io/neurotech-hardware-roundup-eeg-bci... http://gizmodo.com/the-best-brain-reader-your-money-cant-buy-yet-1767234908 http://gizmodo.com/the-best-brain-reader-your-money-cant-buy... http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0105225 http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.... http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0137303 http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.... http://www.zdnet.com/article/ibm-and-xerox-predict-brain-controlled-apps-will-head-to-smartphones/ http://www.zdnet.com/article/ibm-and-xerox-predict-brain-con... https://arxiv.org/abs/1509.01338 https://arxiv.org/abs/1509.01338 https://sccn.ucsd.edu/wiki/Introduction_To_Modern_Brain-Computer_Interface_Design https://sccn.ucsd.edu/wiki/Introduction_To_Modern_Brain-Comp...
FridgeSeal 9y ago
The king of creepy wants another vector to harvest information? What can possibly go wrong here?
mifeng 9y ago
I think for this to work, the service would need to train for a long time on each individual person, because our brain waves are different. In other words, my brain waves when I mentally think of the word "cat" are totally different from yours when you think of the word "cat." Rather than "unsettling" (the word the article's author used), I think this would be awesome. I hate being bounded by the speed of my clumsy, ham-handed typing.
sizzle 9y ago
I fear where we are headed with AR and BCI funded by corporations. Check out the future portrayed by Keiichi Matsuda in HYPER-REALITY: https://vimeo.com/166807261 https://vimeo.com/166807261
nojvek 9y ago
If this works it would make torture useless right? Force implant this on someone's head. Ask a question, usually people answer it in their own head, realize they shouldn't say it and say that they don't know. With Facebook's and Google's track record of privacy this seems like a weapon NSA will have a dancing field day. The ability to hear everyone's thoughts, it's the super power every dictator wants. What next: ability to implant new thoughts and memory. An ad so fucking powerful you can't resist.
sAbakumoff 9y ago
It's becoming boring, ladies, we have seen it all before in 1984: The government attempts to control not only the speech and actions, but also the thoughts of its subjects. To entertain unacceptable thoughts is known as crimethink. "Crimestop" is a way to avoid crimethink by immediately purging dangerous thoughts from the mind.

63 points by pearlsteinj 9y ago

I had the idea of using skin as input for sound and light a long time ago as a kid. I've since seen something using the tongue but not much else. It'll be interesting to see what comes out of it. How many nerve endings are connected to the brain through eyes and ears vs skin (and what the heck is 2 m2 supposed to mean)? As for the brain interface, outside of helping people with severe disabilities, no thank you.

markyc 9y ago
2 m2 probably means two square meters
daleco 9y ago
I worked on vibrotactile and electrotactile technologies (Mostly on the tongue, belly or chest...) for years. The most sensitive part of your body is the tongue, that's where you would get the best resolution. You could turn a b/w images, process it and lower the resolution, then turn the white into levels of stimulation. Unfortunately, the resolution on the tongue display is 20x20. It has its limitation, in a controlled environment we trained people to read 4-5 letter words in few seconds or distinguish shapes. For spatial orientation, it's better to use systems similar to a lidar and use a tactile vest to inform the user how close is the collision. The best use of these systems were for training formula 1 drivers (clue for shifting, braking, timing...), force feedbacks for telesurgery or restauring proprioception for exoskeleton users. https://www.ihmc.us/research/multi-sensory-multi-modal-neural-interfaces/ https://www.ihmc.us/research/multi-sensory-multi-modal-neura... https://www.sages.org/meetings/annual-meeting/abstracts-archive/an-anthro-centric-multisensory-interface-for-sensory-augmentation-of-tele-surgery/ https://www.sages.org/meetings/annual-meeting/abstracts-arch... http://downloads.hindawi.com/journals/jr/2011/284352.pdf http://downloads.hindawi.com/journals/jr/2011/284352.pdf

brilliantcode 9y ago

This would be very interesting to see from a security stand point of view. We are introducing another attack vector. ex. Imagine if you could phish someone's brain.

keyme 9y ago
You'd have to train yourself to "think privately" now... Most people don't even know how to text privately. This may truly be a dystopian nightmare.
- tgragnato 9y ago
  This is already a dystopian nightmare ... Technology is pervasive Smartphones are the most used technological objects (everywhere, always, repeatedly, compulsively, in the subway, on a bus, in a queue, by car, in a restaurant, in a break). VR is massive, augmented reality is not (think about Google Glass): it seems that this sector has picked up the witness by reaching in no time extraordinary results and a public success that increased reality has completely missed. It will be that we are tired of the often difficult and oppressive reality, and instead of increasing it, we want to forget it, evade it and slip completely into an increasingly credible and perfect virtual reality. If this is not a dystopian nightmare ... Drones, artificial intelligence, biotechnology prostheses, wearable computing, automation, sex-bots. The urban layout has changed Vertical development with skyscrapers, horizontal developments with the sprawl and the hinterland. Increased air pollution, gap between rich and poor, extreme difference between some neighborhoods. Cities are becoming cyberpunk, and some have been around for some time. Hacking, surveillance, cyber war NSA, Snowden, Prism, Anonymous, the US government hacking the network of my last university, the Golden Shield Project, leaks, whistleblowers, the power of the ad tech corporations. The multinationals Large business conglomerates closely control the market by often enforcing laws, exploiting the underdeveloped work of innumerable employees by compelling them to work at the limits of slavery. All of this, of course, is aimed at the production of highly prestigious technology objects marketed at prices often overwhelmed by the iconographic presence of the brand, a new divinity created and powered by advertising and fetishically adored by conditioned masses. "Think privately" is something most people are not able to do right here, right now. The possibility that Facebook might try (in a future) to exploit my brain is only the last drop in a dystopian sea.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

ganfortran 9y ago

Good device to start a reality show, Brain Honesty.

cs702 9y ago

I checked the date, but nope, it's not April Fool's today. So apparently, yes, FaceBook is working on devices that will allow you to type with your brain. In return, FaceBook will need from you only access to your thoughts, and maybe your moods and emotions too? Rest assured, advertisers will happily pay for them.

lordCarbonFiber 9y ago
The ability to use BCI != ability to access your thoughts. The technology doesn't, and probably won't for a long while yet, for the latter to start with. Facebook already has access to active user's thoughts, moods, and emotions anyway; they share them willingly and in a much more machine friendly fashion than brain waves. Brain enabled typing is going to be the future of hands free devices, and you're better off trying to beat them to market than lamenting the "evil facebook boogieman".
- johnsonjo 9y ago
  I agree this does look like a very good technology for hands free communication. I'm still worried about the possible cons. So, do you think it would likely take more than a software update for it's ability to access your thoughts? Because, even if the technology isn't quite there yet if they can just somewhere down the road update these things over the air with these capabilities it seems a little frightening.
- cs702 9y ago
  Ah yes, except that (1) people who use such an interface will meld with it, and (2) we're talking about brain sensors on you.
  - lordCarbonFiber 9y ago
    Most input sensors are "brain sensors" in the most reductive sense. There's nothing spooky about brain sensors. You can buy them today, as meditation tools. I have a long running personal project thread to to use mine as a typing interface. It's 100% possible with current technology and not in the least bit dystopian. Interested parties can read your thoughts much more reliably by just parsing these public posts than trying to build a model to get something more specific than "discrete input A" out of brain waves.

jmagaro88 9y ago

Time for occlumency training...

ruddct 9y ago

An advertising company wants mainline access to my brain and vital signs. What could go wrong? (Note: You know you're getting old when you start to get concerned about the privacy of these things. If you'd told me when I started in tech that people would be voluntarily buying always-on microphones sold by advertising companies and putting them in their houses, I would've called you insane. Who knows, maybe this will work).

colmvp 9y ago
I look forward to the day when we start having to develop the Ghostery for preventing ads that track our identity via facial/gait recognition, and the brain and skin.
- kakarot 9y ago
  Why Ghostery? There are addons now that provide better functionality without the awful redesigned interface.
Malic 9y ago
What could go wrong? One word: Blipverts
maggiedean 9y ago
Nothing could go wrong, don't worry about. While you enjoy your sleep, make sure you enjoy it while wearing Lightspeed Briefs! For today's active lifestyle, whether you're on the job, or having fun! Lightspeed Briefs!

ben_mann 9y ago

Not clear how they will make a non invasive optical brain interface...

anfractuosity 9y ago

I'm curious about the skin-hearing technology, in the article it mentions 'a system of actuators tuned to 16 frequency bands', does that mean say you'd have 16 actuators each using producing different frequencies? And would the actuators be used on any part of the body?

AIMunchkin 9y ago
https://www.thestar.com/life/health_wellness/2008/07/02/emotichair_delivers_good_vibrations_to_deaf.html https://www.thestar.com/life/health_wellness/2008/07/02/emot...

snickerbockers 9y ago

If there's one company I won't let into my brain, it's Facebook.

Chaebixi 9y ago
But they're changing* the world! * for some negative value of "change"

daenz 9y ago

“This isn’t about decoding random thoughts. This is about decoding the words you’ve already decided to share by sending them to the speech center of your brain.” Somehow this still doesn't make me feel at ease.

diminoten 9y ago
A future skill may be not thinking verbally.
- isomorph 9y ago
  When I was younger I used to try not to subvocalise (?) my computer passwords, thinking that might stop someone reading my mind. Might start that again
  - someguy101010 9y ago
    Nasa had an article[0] back in 2004 where they could detect what you were saying with sub vocalization on the skin and were already working on technology to read it through cloths back then, so not to get too tinfoil hat but that might not be all that bad of an idea. [0]https://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2004/mar/HQ_04093_subvocal_speech.html https://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2004/mar/HQ_04093_subvocal_...
- maggiedean 9y ago
  Or vice versa, thinking verbally with intent for external apparatus to receive the thought. How, how many faux pas and freudian slips would occur while people get used to the system! I suspect they will be looked upon similarly as typos are today. After all, you don't have to press send until you're happy with what will be delivered (and if any service doesn't, then they'll quickly be abandoned by their customers).
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
johnsonjo 9y ago
Yeah, I had the same feeling. Just because it doesn't output my innermost thoughts to text doesn't mean it is not keeping track of said thoughts. As if FaceBook didn't already have enough data about me that could be used unethically.

pinewurst 9y ago

Aluminum foil headgear will soon be in fashion.

sharkweek 9y ago

I deal with OCD of the intrusive thought variety. Sometimes my brain gets stuck in a loop of my deepest fears coming true. In fact, sometimes just a single "trigger" word will get stuck repeating itself over and over in my head. The idea of having a brain-computer interface recording this activity is an absolute non-starter for me. But then again, maybe this would all normalize some of my own mental activity, if it was more public how strange everyone's minds can act at times.

MarkPNeyer 9y ago
Here's s technique I've found helpful for intrusive thoughts. It's like stack overflowing your imagination with a vivid internal ritual, which overwrites all the frames containing unpleasant thoughts. I imagine writing the details of the unpleasant thought or image down in vim. This converts the thought to "something I am observing" vs "something i and xperiencing." Then the ritual plays out, where inmagine the same sequence of events: saving the file in vim to disk. Copying the file to a USB memory stic. Putting that stick into a ziploc back. Putting that bag into a specific pocket in my backpack. Getting my backpack and getting on my bike. Biking from my old apartment (where I lived when I developed this technique) and bike down 101 to moffet Air Force base, where I throw the backpack into a conveyor chute to a rock, which launches the backpack into space. Sometimes I had to repeat the ritual a few times, but afterward, the image or thought recedes in intensity.
- DonHopkins 9y ago
  You should consider using emacs instead of vim, because it can easily handle saving the file to disk, copying it to a USB memory stick, putting it into a ziploc bag, biking it down 101 to Moffet, throwing it onto a conveyer belt into a rocket, and launching it into space, all automatically, in one single keystroke!
AIMunchkin 9y ago
I could conceive of a high-fallutin' fidget cube for your mind constructed from this technology. I could also see it used for both a lie detector and a biofeedback tool to defeat its use as such. But what really comes to mind is the final scene in Firefox wherein Mitchell Gant has to subvocalize in Russian to fire the rearward missile on the fancy Russian jet he's stolen.

deepnotderp 9y ago

Brb, investing in tinfoil hat stocks.... On a serious note though, what's to stop Facebook from collecting more information than it claims? It may claim to only be scanning for verbal locomotion, but how can we be guaranteed that they aren't discretely monitoring our reactions to advertisements or whatnot?

notfried 9y ago
When the time comes, it will be written there in the Terms & Conditions that they can record your reactions to advertisements and more, and billions will be clicking "I Agree."
AIMunchkin 9y ago
Well if they're like Bose, you'll be fine as long as you don't install their helpful app.

mebassett 9y ago

What is unclear (at least to me) is how much of this tech actually exists, and how much FB is simply stating their aspirations. There is such optimism in tech that we take claims like being able to "type at 100 words per minute" without invasive surgery at face value. And there is such cynicism that we are (or at least I am) terrified of the sort of society this would create. But can anyone actively researching this field comment on how feasible this is with invasive surgery, never mind without?

lucasmullens 9y ago
With a public announcement and a team of 60, seems like FB is at least convinced it's feasible.
lordCarbonFiber 9y ago
100 words perminute seems aspirational to me. You as a consumer, could with ~100$ in off the shelf tech make a system that, given user practice, could do 30 though. Not with subvocalization though; just with basic T9 style typing, just with your thoughts instead of fingers. IMO best I can tell subvocalization is a holy grail of BCI and thus far even DARPA hasn't made much headway. I don't see FB doing better; especially given they have next to no expertise in hardware.
CoolGuySteve 9y ago
It won't take long, it will probably happen within our lifetime. But I fully believe our grandchildren will take this technology for granted. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jroQCyWwEgE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jroQCyWwEgE
- maggiedean 9y ago
  I just got done writing a post that also directly quotes a television series without direct acknowledgement. Actually you linked to the exact scene, so that's better than what I did. Are we pulling down the benchmark for what qualifies as a worthwhile comment on Hacker News? ...Actually, yeah, probably.
deleted 9y ago

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

gremlinsinc 9y ago

The next great frontier for hacking could be hacking brainwaves to get data as you think it--that's pretty scary.

alfonsodev 9y ago

A publication from 3 days ago: "Success in recognizing ddigits and monosyllables with high accurary from brain activity measurement" [1] https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-04/tuot-sir041417.php https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-04/tuot-sir0414... I have an openBCI at home, this is like a huge motivation to finally build the helmet and play often :)

suyash 9y ago

Can anyone share more resources on how BCI works, specially non-invasive (no implants inside brain) BCI ? Papers, blogs etc

T-A 9y ago
A few links from recent years: http://www.autodidacts.io/neurotech-hardware-roundup-eeg-bci-tdcs-neurofeedback/ http://www.autodidacts.io/neurotech-hardware-roundup-eeg-bci... http://gizmodo.com/the-best-brain-reader-your-money-cant-buy-yet-1767234908 http://gizmodo.com/the-best-brain-reader-your-money-cant-buy... http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0105225 http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.... http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0137303 http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.... http://www.zdnet.com/article/ibm-and-xerox-predict-brain-controlled-apps-will-head-to-smartphones/ http://www.zdnet.com/article/ibm-and-xerox-predict-brain-con... https://arxiv.org/abs/1509.01338 https://arxiv.org/abs/1509.01338 https://sccn.ucsd.edu/wiki/Introduction_To_Modern_Brain-Computer_Interface_Design https://sccn.ucsd.edu/wiki/Introduction_To_Modern_Brain-Comp...

FridgeSeal 9y ago

The king of creepy wants another vector to harvest information? What can possibly go wrong here?

mifeng 9y ago

I think for this to work, the service would need to train for a long time on each individual person, because our brain waves are different. In other words, my brain waves when I mentally think of the word "cat" are totally different from yours when you think of the word "cat." Rather than "unsettling" (the word the article's author used), I think this would be awesome. I hate being bounded by the speed of my clumsy, ham-handed typing.

sizzle 9y ago

I fear where we are headed with AR and BCI funded by corporations. Check out the future portrayed by Keiichi Matsuda in HYPER-REALITY: https://vimeo.com/166807261 https://vimeo.com/166807261

nojvek 9y ago

If this works it would make torture useless right? Force implant this on someone's head. Ask a question, usually people answer it in their own head, realize they shouldn't say it and say that they don't know. With Facebook's and Google's track record of privacy this seems like a weapon NSA will have a dancing field day. The ability to hear everyone's thoughts, it's the super power every dictator wants. What next: ability to implant new thoughts and memory. An ad so fucking powerful you can't resist.

sAbakumoff 9y ago

It's becoming boring, ladies, we have seen it all before in 1984: The government attempts to control not only the speech and actions, but also the thoughts of its subjects. To entertain unacceptable thoughts is known as crimethink. "Crimestop" is a way to avoid crimethink by immediately purging dangerous thoughts from the mind.