Type Your Mind

The Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Architecture and Software Technology (English, Deutsch) and the Department of Neurology at the Charité hospital have come up with the Berlin Brain-Computer Interface (BBCI), a sort of mental typwriter that allows direct dialogue between man and machine. Electrodes attached to the scalp measure the brain’s electrical signals in the form of an electroencephalogram (EEG). The signals are trans-mitted to a computer and converted into technical control signals. The Mail & Guardian who interviewed BBCI researchers says that the long-term objective of this project is to create a brain-controlled device that could allow people with severe disabilities to communicate with the outside world.

This will be on exhibit at CeBIT this week.