Twitter with your mind…
After hearing a talk show discussion about Twitter–the “all the rage” communication platform that allows one to simply post updates to a dedicated list of online followers- a doctoral student decides, “wouldn’t it be great if you can just ‘tweet’ with your mind.
This story posted on CNN Health prophesies the future of communications technologies and hints at applications for such invention like ‘mind-tweets’ in communicating with paralysis patients.
This story breaks in the same week that perennial ‘mind-melder’ Stephen Hawking finds himself in the hospital for severe chest infection. Hawking, who wrote ‘A Brief History of Time’ and introduced quantum physics to a mainstream popular science audience, introduced Einstein’s Theory of Relativity in a way that captivated readers with a 4 year run on the London Times Best Seller’s List.
Hawking suffers from a severe type of ALS, causing nervous and muscular debilitation, and most of his communication is done through a predictive text-entry system, much like modern cellular phone text messaging programs. However unlike the experimental ‘mind-tweet’, Hawking’s system is connected with a voice synthesizer for the effect of verbal communication.
Could this be the next step? A mind-controlled communication system that verbalizes your thoughts? Seems like a natural progression.