Interfaces

This Positive Technology Journal article looks at the Heart Chamber Orchestra: classical musicians who use their heartbeats to control a computer composition and visualization environment. From the article: "To my best knowledge, this is the first example of "group biofeedback".

The musicians are equipped with ECG (electrocardiogram) sensors. A computer monitors and analyzes the state of these 12 hearts in real time. The acquired information is used to compose a musical score with the aid of computer software. It is a living score dependent on the state of the hearts.

Imagine your motor cortex fully activated while you have full muscle tone but both what your cortex says you are experiencing and what you are actually experiencing are not what you body is actually doing. You were trained to do this on a brain computer interface. Highly Skilled lucid dreamers in intense sessions and brain tomography on the level of seismic tomography make this all possible. Accessing the brain thru non-invasive means is vital in Berlin where Brain Computer Interfacers and the Locked-in are moving things with only their minds; however, one might say that all this research is treading water awaiting advances in Neuro-surgery. I’m pitching the thoroughly developed non-invasive technique as a necessary prelude to the invasive interface. I’m just looking for sympathetic places to post the story I’m telling in the form of a fictitious photo journal. http://deepcomputedbciashortstory.blogspot.com/

Just a reminder that if you want to participate in the 3DUI Grand Prize you have until the end of the month to register !

This Technologie Review article talks about an inexpensive pressure-sensitive pad that can sense multiple inputs at once. From the article: "Now that more and more smart phones and MP3 players have touch-screen interfaces, people have grown accustomed to interacting with gadgets using only taps and swipes of their fingers. But on the 11th floor of a downtown Manhattan building, New York University researchers Ilya Rosenberg and Ken Perlin are developing an interface that goes even further.

From this ScienceDaily article: "A system that can recognize human gestures could provide a new way for people with physical disabilities to interact with computers. A related system for the able bodied could also be used to make virtual worlds more realistic.

Manolya Kavakli of the Virtual and Interactive Simulations of Reality Research Group, at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, explains how standard input devices - keyboard and computer mouse, do not closely mimic natural hand motions such as drawing and sketching. Moreover, these devices have not been developed for ergonomic use nor for people with disabilities.

This PRWeb article takes a look at a high-tech virtual reality device that helps parkinson's patients walk safely again. From the article: "MediGait LLC combines virtual reality programming and real-time motion detection into a cell-phone sized device that helps PD patients regain their natural ability to walk normally. This device helps PD patients by jump-starting a process that induces a neuroplastic brain response. This means the patient's brain literally rewires itself using healthy circuits bypassing diseased areas sometimes in as little as two weeks.

This Behavioral and brain functions article describes a study about modulating presence and impulsive behavior by external stimulation of the brain. From the article: ""The feeling of being there" is one possible way to describe the phenomenon of feeling present in a virtual environment and to act as if this environment is real. One brain area, which is hypothesized to be critically involved in modulating this feeling (also called presence) is the dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), an area also associated with the control of impulsive behavior.

This Emerging Tech Roland Piquepaille article reports the University of Illinois at Chicago’s (UIC) Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) will develop the OmegaTable, a multi-sensory touch tabletop for interactive, visual data exploration in 2D and autostereoscopic 3D. From the article: "After the LambdaTable unveiled in 2007, the University of Illinois at Chicago’s (UIC) Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) will develop the OmegaTable, a new virtual reality display. It will be a modular, multi-sensory touch tabletop for interactive, visual data exploration in 2D and autostereoscopic 3D (3D without special glasses). EVL received a $450K grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop the device. The project will start in September 2008 for a 3-year duration.

This ScienceDaily article takes a look at a PhD thesis presented at the University of the Basque Country which puts forward the use of avatars or virtual Internet personages as an efficient form of non-verbal communication, principally focusing on emotional aspects. From the article: "Scientists have been working for decades so that the interaction between people and computers be more natural and intuitive. In fact, a great part of the success or failure of a computer application depends on the user interface. The way in which we communicate with the operating system, for example, has progressed a lot from the time when it was required to write complicated lines of commands on a black and white screen to those with much more intuitive windows.

This NewScientistTech article reports Erik Ramsey who is almost totally paralysed is learning to talk again with the help of an electrode implanted in his speech-motor cortex. You may also check the video on YouTube. From the article: "Nine years ago, a brain-stem stroke left Erik Ramsey almost totally paralysed, but with his mental faculties otherwise intact. Today he is learning to talk again – although so far he can only manage basic vowel sounds.

In 2004, Ramsey had an electrode implanted in his speech-motor cortex by Philip Kennedy's team at Neural Signals, a company based in Duluth, Georgia, US, who hoped the signal from Ramsey's cortex could be used to restore his speech.