Typing With Your Brain 262
destinyland writes "This article asks, 'Why bother to type a document using a keyboard when you can write it by simply thinking about the letters?' A brain wave study presented at the 2009 annual meeting of the American Epilepsy Society shows that people with electrodes in their brains can 'type' using just their minds. The study involved electrocorticography — a sheet of electrodes laid directly on the surface of the brain after a surgical incision into the skull. ('We were able to consistently predict the desired letters for our patients at or near 100 percent accuracy,' explains one Mayo clinic neurologist.) And besides typing, there's new brain wave applications that can now turn brain waves into music and even Twitter status updates — by thought alone."
For slashdotters... (Score:3, Funny)
typing *without* your brain might be more convenient.
Re:Maybe I'm stating the obvious, but (Score:5, Funny)
Brilliant (Score:5, Funny)
Amazing. Why there are no(*) downsides at all! This will sweep the world!
Soon we will all use this, and the keyboard will be dead. Imagine what computers could look like without the needing keyboard. Almost like... tablets of some kind. We'll call them "portable blackboard computers".
(*) Only known downsides:
It is by will alone I set my mind in motion. (Score:3, Funny)
It is by will alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the juice of Sapho that thoughts acquire speed, the lips acquire stains. The stains become a warning. It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
And Electrodes in the brain.
Right...
It is by will and electrodes in my brain I set my mind in motion.
Because... (Score:2, Funny)
I can't think 120WPM, but I can sure type it.
Re:Maybe I'm stating the obvious, but (Score:2, Funny)
I really boobies don't know boobies what you are boobies talking about. boobies
Dude, press pause on the Slayers episode before posting. :P
Re:Maybe I'm stating the obvious, but (Score:5, Funny)
I wouldn't be embarrassed, but the sexual harassment lawsuits would be unrelenting.
Why? Everytime you think of something sexual in that e-mail to your boss, you'll have to hit backspace. It's a positive feedback system. And I fail to see why this is a problem only for men -- if you knew half the stuff that went through the average woman's brain you'd probably crap a few bricks. Women make up for in detail what men do in quantity in that regard. ^___^ I'm not afraid my boss will find out... I'm worried my mother will.
Re:I think it would be too slow (Score:3, Funny)
if I had to think of each letter, I would probably forget what I was thinking in the first place
You could write it down so you won’t forget it...
Re:Maybe I'm stating the obvious, but (Score:3, Funny)
Until you automatically think CTRL+Enter in your mind, then you're screwed!
Control. Enter. hmmmmmmmmmm.... (smiles sweetly) I think that when I'm around my girlfriend all the time.
Yeah... (Score:3, Funny)
Is there such a thing as a sticky key when you are thinking about it?
Youuuuuuuuu do know what I am talking abouuuuuuuuuuut, right?
Re:Maybe I'm stating the obvious, but (Score:3, Funny)
And I fail to see why this is a problem only for men -- if you knew half the stuff that went through the average woman's brain you'd probably crap a few bricks
Sure, but the double standard would still ensure that the sexual harassment lawsuits against men would vastly outnumber those against women.
The typical man who opens a “whoopsie” e-mail from a female coworker would have several paragraphs worth of questionable material to delete before he had even finished reading her e-mail. The typical woman who received a similar e-mail from a male coworker would have the letter to her lawyer halfway completed...
;p
Re:Maybe I'm stating the obvious, but (Score:3, Funny)
See colon, then enter?
That sounds dirty.
Re:Because... (Score:3, Funny)
I can't think 120WPM, but I can sure type it.
Then, at your fastest, you must be typing things that you haven't put any thought into. Thus - your post.
Re:Maybe I'm stating the obvious, but (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah, but the next one will go to 11.
Re:This is good? (Score:5, Funny)
> I already thought Twitter required more filtering between brain and
> keyboard, but now this?
It's Twitter. No need to involve the brain at all.
Re:Maybe I'm stating the obvious, but (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Maybe I'm stating the obvious, but (Score:1, Funny)
He married a Japanese woman after that, he hasn't seen boobies since.