Star Trek, here we come! Now you can control your computer with your mind. This isn’t a future technology; it’s here now. EPOC recently released a brain-reading headset that, when combined with the EmoLens app, can detect your emotions; thus controling your computer.
Right now, the primary application for this would be tagging photos. For example, if you are feeling happy, it tags the photos with the word happy. If you look at a photo that doesn’t make you happy, it tags it with the emotion you are feeling. If you aren’t in the mood to use your emotions to control your computer, you can also use a series of movements including blinking, shaking your head or concentrating.
Of course, there are limitations at this stage in the development. For example, it can only detect four emotions. Also, it doesn’t tag photos on Facebook (which is where we would probably need it most) but it does on Flickr. Also, as I’m sure you guessed, this isn’t going to come cheap. The headset sells for $299, and the app is an additional $39. You can find them both on Emotiv. However, all and all, this is very cool. We’ve been seeing a lot progress lately in emotion-based technology. Recently I’ve written about a phone that allows you to feel someone’s breath and touch, and a video game controlled by kissing. Then, of course, there are the all the Kinect applications that we’ve seen related to this. It’s fascinating for sure!
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