Le worked together with Alan Snyder, a neuroscientist who won the Marconi prize for his research in 2003. Synder’s vision is that every human can be a genius, like an autist savant, but that we’re quickly pressed into our current human existence through our education and environment. Subconsciously there’s a lot still going on.
Le’s biggest problem is that the sensors taped to the head have a certain distance to the brain. Because there can also be a lot of activity deeper in the brain the distance between source and sensor is so large that all signals are blurred. However, by working together with a team of smart people, a mathematical model could be developed. The model can calculate the source-activity based on measurements of 16 sensors.
There are three detection suites that we have
created:
- expressive: capturing facial expressions, blinking, smiling, flirting, winking, we can all capture that in realtime
- affective: understanding emotional experience in real time
- cognitief: ‘which is the ability to move an object, just by thinking about it
Although the place of activity in the brain is the same for everyone, the exact pattern isn’t. That’s why the system needs to be trained first. You have to think, for example, of a cube that turns right. The signals for that are measure and saved. Then a cube is shown. The moment the system knows what you’re thinking, for example of a cube turning right, the cube will start to turn.
A nice application Le mentions is in music. People don’t want to star their music files one by one. However, if the headphone can observe our emotions with the music, this process can be automated.
Future Vision by Erwin Van Lun on this article
The moment we start to measure our brains, and we bring the subconscious into the conscious mind, we’ll be able to do brilliant things, we’ll be able to train our brain a way that still seems impossible, we’ll be able to do things that are currently considered to be ‘miracles’. Remembering all names of a couple of hundred people at the same time, counting the amount of pins falling to the floor, or knowing the number pi to a few thousand numbers after the comma. It’ll all be in our reach later. Well, for us? Actually for the generations in 2050. The time of Pamper Planet.