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."

Bring on the baseball hat wearing disses

[QuantumG]

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.

 

Re:And what exactly will this provide?

[Bottlemaster]

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-reach technically) brain-computer interface has obvious uses - if a keyboard is useful, a BCI is useful. I hope technology progresses in my lifetime to the point that I can have a terminal emulator surgically implanted in my head.

Furthermore, what reality do you live in? Neural interfaces are already being used to give more natural control of prosthetic limbs, and prosthetic eyes are giving sight to the blind. The medical uses of the current technology are already nothing short of miraculous, and it will only get better from here.

Re:Doesn't read your mind.

[Culture20]

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.