• Question: Do you think it will ever be possible to just think things and technology will do it for you, like typing? Is it already possible?

    Asked by #nerdyweirdo to Chris, Josh, Rebecca, Rob, Susan on 19 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Rebecca Dewey

      Rebecca Dewey answered on 19 Jun 2015:

      It’s already a little bit possible, but it’s not very good yet. There are lots of wearable technologies that use brain activity to control stuff, but usually they just have a couple of controls, not like a whole alphabet. People have made research tools that can be used to control a very simple video game or coloured light. I think it is only a matter of time that we will be able to find some brain activity signal to record that will help us to type – it’s just about getting it slick enough that it’s actually useful!

    • Photo: Susan Cartwright

      Susan Cartwright answered on 19 Jun 2015:

      Yes. This already happens to a certain extent: researchers have been able to allow people who are paralysed by spinal injury to control simple things by thinking about them. The machines and the people both have to be trained to make it possible – you can’t buy one off the shelf and have it work instantly – and so far what can be done is also fairly simple. But this is definitely going to happen, and probably quite soon (decades, not centuries).

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