The next revolutionary stage of personal computing for me would be when Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI), devices that can interpret human cognition using methods such as EEG/MEG/MRI/fMRI, are dominant over other interfaces in personal computing. Looking at the exponential growth of technology over the last century, chances are that full-featured BCI PCs (PCs that use BCI) will appear in the consumer market in the next 50 years. But looking at the failure of the flying cars or the fact that Apple took 3 years to bring multitasking to iPhone OS, that prediction of 50 years might be unfounded. I wonder what kind of form a commercial BCI PC would take, whether it would be invasive like the Matrix's simulated reality or non-invasive like the thought-controlled wheelchair of X-Men's Professor Xavier. Of course, in real life, the wheelchair would be controlled by something more realistic like brainwaves, not superhuman mind power. I suspect that there will be both invasive and non-invasive BCI PCs and that they won't be significantly different from one another. Much like how we have different forms of computers that are essentially similar today. Today, I wanted to write about the things we might see on the road to BCI PCs and the things that are preventing BCI PCs.
I have always thought that the final barrier frontier of human-computer interaction would be when there are neuroprosthetics or cyber prosthetics for the eyes, for the ears, and for parts of the brain. They are the only three places in our body in which our visual and auditory perception can be intercepted, interpreted, and interfered by a computer. Sight and hearing are important because they are the primary communication media between humans and computers. The remaining three senses, touch, smell, and taste, can never comprehend an *.avi file. Prosthetics for the eyes, the ears, and parts of the brain are available today, but those that are available now are rudimentary, are independent from one another, and are not anymore functional than the real biological organs. Perhaps when they could emulate the real organs perfectly, they could further advance to the point where it can be used as parts of a full-featured BCI PCs. But before we get there, I think we may see some devices that may provide near-BCI PC experience. Two of these devices that are available today are the chunky bluetooth earpieces and the dorky computer-glasses. Not so cool. But imagine a James Bond style stereo earpieces and a transparent contact lens display that use wireless energy transfer for power and wireless communication technology to connect to the mobile computer in your pocket. The earpieces would play background music in low-volume while letting external auditory stimuli to permeate thru, and the transparent contact lens would fake display imaginary objects like a Facebook or VNC window over real world objects. Cool, no? Augmenting the eyes and the ears with devices that can augment sight and hearing would be a milestone achievement for human-computer interaction, and I don't think they are that far away. At least the non-invasive ones are already here.
Looking at the currently available products in the market, I assume that it is easier to have a computer understand brain signals than to have a brain understand computer signals. In the market, there are several products that can be controlled by brainwaves using electroencephalography (EEG), but there are significantly fewer products that can control brainwaves. In other words, we have succeeded in transferring data out from the brain using machines, but we have not yet succeeded in transferring data into it. In other other words, we have an I/O issue, and I don't think this is an easy problem to solve. Solving it would require completely understanding visual phototransduction and auditory mechanotransduction, when we don't even know where consciousness is from. As such, I believe it is safe to assume that when we first see BCI PCs that use the human brain as its input device, we will see them use a kind of a monitor and a kind of a speaker as their output devices. And we will use our eyes and ears as our input devices and our brain as our output device. That is a disappointment because it falls a bit short of having a computer in your head. However, if the things I said in the previous paragraph happen, we might see EEG-controlled transparent contact lens displays and James Bond bluetooth stereo earpieces, which don't sound so bad at all.
I have always thought that the final barrier frontier of human-computer interaction would be when there are neuroprosthetics or cyber prosthetics for the eyes, for the ears, and for parts of the brain. They are the only three places in our body in which our visual and auditory perception can be intercepted, interpreted, and interfered by a computer. Sight and hearing are important because they are the primary communication media between humans and computers. The remaining three senses, touch, smell, and taste, can never comprehend an *.avi file. Prosthetics for the eyes, the ears, and parts of the brain are available today, but those that are available now are rudimentary, are independent from one another, and are not anymore functional than the real biological organs. Perhaps when they could emulate the real organs perfectly, they could further advance to the point where it can be used as parts of a full-featured BCI PCs. But before we get there, I think we may see some devices that may provide near-BCI PC experience. Two of these devices that are available today are the chunky bluetooth earpieces and the dorky computer-glasses. Not so cool. But imagine a James Bond style stereo earpieces and a transparent contact lens display that use wireless energy transfer for power and wireless communication technology to connect to the mobile computer in your pocket. The earpieces would play background music in low-volume while letting external auditory stimuli to permeate thru, and the transparent contact lens would fake display imaginary objects like a Facebook or VNC window over real world objects. Cool, no? Augmenting the eyes and the ears with devices that can augment sight and hearing would be a milestone achievement for human-computer interaction, and I don't think they are that far away. At least the non-invasive ones are already here.
Looking at the currently available products in the market, I assume that it is easier to have a computer understand brain signals than to have a brain understand computer signals. In the market, there are several products that can be controlled by brainwaves using electroencephalography (EEG), but there are significantly fewer products that can control brainwaves. In other words, we have succeeded in transferring data out from the brain using machines, but we have not yet succeeded in transferring data into it. In other other words, we have an I/O issue, and I don't think this is an easy problem to solve. Solving it would require completely understanding visual phototransduction and auditory mechanotransduction, when we don't even know where consciousness is from. As such, I believe it is safe to assume that when we first see BCI PCs that use the human brain as its input device, we will see them use a kind of a monitor and a kind of a speaker as their output devices. And we will use our eyes and ears as our input devices and our brain as our output device. That is a disappointment because it falls a bit short of having a computer in your head. However, if the things I said in the previous paragraph happen, we might see EEG-controlled transparent contact lens displays and James Bond bluetooth stereo earpieces, which don't sound so bad at all.
1 Comments:
so as BCI-PCs become prevalent, we're going to have to start thinking about which pill to take, "blue pill or the red pill?", as creating a Matrix-like stimuli providing a certain type of pleasure will also be available. - sort of like drugs without having to take them.
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