Is she making ears at me?
Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2011 6:38 am
They may look cute or silly - depending on your view of view - but these ears are cutting-edge technology.
They can read your brain waves and transmit how you're feeling ... in ear movements.
When you are relaxed or bored, the ears lie flat, when you are concentrating or focused they perk up, and even wiggle if you are amused.
The "Necomimi", which means "cat's ears" in Japanese, launched in May but are set to go on sale at the end of the year, and was picked by Time magazine as one of the year's 50 best inventions.
Its goals are simple - it has two brain-wave sensors that can detect and interpret what you are thinking, and show it through four different movements.
"We were exploring new ways of communicating and we thought it would be interesting to use brainwaves," Kana Nakano of Neurowear told Agence France-Presse earlier this year.
"Because the sensors must be attached to the head, we tried to come up with something cute and catchy."
While having brainwave sensors attached to a pair of fluffy ears may seem a frivolous, it is one example of the increasing accessibility of such technology, and how it can be used not just for high-end medical equipment, but also for children's toys and games.
The catch though is that accurately reading EEG signals, which these technologies are attempting to do, can be difficult because of amount of "noise" a brain generates.
Associate Professor Ross Cunnington of the Queensland Brain Institute, who is developing brain computer interfaces for communication, said the industry is moving in two streams.
"We're really going to have this split - the gimmicky toys and games that will get just more reliable and the medical-type applications, which is more challenging because they will never be used until they are entirely reliable.
"At the moment, that's entirely within a research field. But what's coming out of the research field is driving a lot of the commercial applications in gaming and toys."
Associate Professor Cunnington said the key to improving the technology was data.
The more data is fed into these systems, the more accurate they become in reading EEG (encephalogram) signals, he said, adding that the main costs were associated with the development of signal processing.
"The technology really relies on the computer learning. What is the pattern that represents happy? What is a pattern that represents sad? And those patterns are going to defer a lot between individual people.
"One of the big applications currently is detecting drowsiness or fatigue in people driving, especially truck drivers. That's also proved incredibly difficult to work reliably enough that the driver will wear it and use it.
"In a toy or a game, not having 100 per cent reliability is not a problem ... In situations where there is safety involved, it's really important that it works."
This year alone, German scientists announced they are working on a system that harnesses a driver's brainwaves to control their car's emergency braking system.
In Japan, developers from car manufacturer Nissan and Swiss University Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne are using technology developed for disabled people to manipulate their wheelchairs to create a car that can be driven with just your mind.
And in Australia, Emotiv Systems has for some time been selling a wireless headset for people to play computer games using their thoughts alone.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/techno ... z1ePgJdoR2
