A Baseball Hat That Reads Your Mind

esocid writes to tell us that researchers from Taiwan have created a new baseball cap complete with embedded bio-signal monitoring system. The purpose was to give a neural interface that could be useful in everyday life. "The cap contains five embedded dry electrodes on the wearer's forehead, and one electrode behind the left ear, that acquire EEG signals. Then, the EEG signals are wirelessly transmitted to a data receiver, where they are processed in real-time by a dual-core processor. The BCI system includes Bluetooth transmission for distances of 10m or less (e.g., for driving applications), as well as RF transmission for distances up to 600m (e.g., for potential sports applications). Next, the processed signals are transmitted back to the cap, where the data can be stored, displayed in real-time on a screen, or be used to trigger an audio warning, if necessary."

Why a baseball hat?

Why not a propeller-hat? At least that way we have something worth reading.

Re:Why a baseball hat?

Battery life.

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Just wire it up backwards - use the propeller as a generator!

Results of first reading:

sex sex sex sex sex (lameness filter)

"It looks like an ordinary baseball cap"

Well, other than the GIANT ANTENNA sticking out of it and the scotch tape behind the ear.

Bring on the baseball hat wearing disses

I used to wear a baseball hat.. for a while I even wore it sideways, or backwards. It was only after I stopped wearing it all together that I noticed how much people were treating me like an idiot. A few years later I discovered I was shorted sighted and got glasses and discovered another way to get people to instantly treat you differently. I hear that if you hold documents at arms length to read them people think you are older and treat you with more respect, haven't tried that one myself.

So yeah, although you might have some magic baseball hat that makes you smarter, it's not going to matter much, people are still going to treat you like an invalid.

 

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I'm sorry, but someone who can't figure out how to wear a baseball hat IS an idiot.

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And it's because of fools like you that used cars salesmen will continue to wear business suits.

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Damn. Who knew used car salesmen had mod points?

Re:Bring on the baseball hat wearing disses

We need to change perceptions. A baseball cap is, in fact, a symbol of relative freedom. A business suit -- well, specifically the tie -- is a symbol of modern slavery.

The irony is that society perceives the tie to be a symbol of someone successful -- where in reality it's most usually a symbol of someone trapped by their own lack of creativity and intellect.

A tie = a slave collar. The tie is otherwise the singular, most useless, garment on Earth.

Re:Bring on the baseball hat wearing disses

Bring on the baseball hat wearing disses

A sideways baseball cap says to the world: "I will never be anyone's boss!"
A backwards baseball cap adds: "Me too! ...except for that idiot wearing his cap sideways!"

Was that ok?

Doesn't read your mind.

The EEG obtains information arising largely from the cortex and the summation of millions of neuronal currents. It is inaccurate and not reliable enough for critical applications (any situation where 'backfiring' is a bad thing).

As far as I am aware, the state of art of computer interpretation of EEG is only up to monitoring awareness and sleep and possibly detecting seizures, so this would be good for patients in hospitals & home in diagnosing epilepsy.

Might be useful for train drivers or pilots, though, in detecting a sleeper-at-the-wheel.

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so this would be good for patients in hospitals & home in diagnosing epilepsy.

Agreed; I had to wear a home EEG fifteen years ago, complete with wires and paste all over my head, and a cassette recorder on my hip. This sounds much cleaner, and more socially acceptable.

Not likely

"The cap contains five embedded dry electrodes on the wearer's forehead"

My head sweat will kill those electrodes in two lawn mowings. And that'll be just from the smell.

Long ways off from being useful...

Other than the audio warning, this hat idea has a long way to go before it becomes useful. I guess you could make it zap you a little when you're looking at a girl way out of your league. Wait, this just turned into a geek-survival tool. This could work.

Re:Long ways off from being useful...

...Until you realize that you have to stop looking at females because it's too painful otherwise ;)

--- Mr. DOS

Luckily...

...it won't be able to penetrate my tinfoil hat.

Important measuring device?

At long last we can get a direct reading of how many IQ points you lose when you put on a baseball hat—and how many more you lose when you wear it backward or sideways.

The sadist in me...

...wants to wirelessly hack the hat and fire electricity into their brain via the headwear.

Think of it. You just spent a few hundred bucks on a hat and some smartass with a laptop keeps electronically jabbing you in the skull while you run through the park.

I, for one, would laugh until my beverage escaped through my nose!

!parC hO

I've got my cap on backwards!

hmmm... it's hard to tell...

You'll go to...

Gryffindor...

  yay!

What the Hat reports...

Person Wearing Hat:

• Guy:Oh ya, wearing this backward makes me look *cool*.
• Gal:Does this hat make me look fat?

By-the-way, the answers are: No (you look like a moron) and (sigh, not again) no.

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Video Games.

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Borging ourselves might some day prove useful, but so far neither science fiction nor real life has shown this to be of much use beyond scientific curiosity and bragging rights.

What science fiction have you been reading? Even a simple (but still out-of-re

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with my tinfoil hat turned against me what shall I do?