So, doctors are nearing datajacks pretty quick now.

Sign me up

The new tech sounds interesting. I know the old biofeedback could only detect high/low states, but the new stuff seems to allow you to record your responses to stimulus - seems like a pretty short hop from there to a simple directional control and A/B buttons. If it were attached to a set of glasses with translucent display tech in them and an ear piece, you could answer or place phone calls without having to touch anything.

I allow myself optimism in small measured doses - that actually sounds like a marketable product that could jump-start the AR/DNI kit we'd all like to see. Imagine if some of the iPhone functionality was connected to that hypothetical headset - GPS navigation, pop-up text messages and alerts, clock/calender/reminder functions... I think the tech is there to connect all those things to one device, if the trode net tech they're talking about works.

Hmmm... Perfect the tech, add a little technological convergence... voila... I'll wait to get mine unitl we find out if they cause cancer in monkeys...

*Twiddles thumbs and waits patiently*


Hey, post 501... I was completely oblivious and missed post 500...

I don't see why we can't have something like this already. I know for a fact that brain computer interfaces already exist, but it's limited to two functions at the minute: up/down. Surely with training, you could get someone to think about letters on a keyboard, put an implant in them, and that's it. Just get the implant to recognise the letters on the keyboard as you think about and all of a sudden you can type with your head. Well, you could probably do that anyway but it wouldn't make much sense. The only problem with this DNI is that it's one-way.

I don't think this brain wave stuff will lead to everything we expect from a datajack. It's too fuzzy. Give me DNI any day of the week with strands of nanomaterial running through my brain.

what i found interesting is that they have found that words and images trigger similar patterns in different people.

that is, rather then having to fully relearn a brain from the ground up, the system can make some educated guesses ones the statistical tolerances have been calculated.

and even more so, if one can manage to stimulate the same patterns, one can have basic asist in place, with a library of objects and sounds.

still, this is not eeg or similar, this is fmri. That is, large electro-magnet and all that, good luck getting that down into a wearable package any time soon...

Theoretically speaking, all they'd need is the basic interface as hardware, then BluTooth it for wireless capability and carry your 'link in your pocket.

Exactly. Love the idea of a datajack. Hate the Idea of opening my skull every time I need to upgrade the processor or the vid card.

Meh, that's why I'm waiting out for a trode net.

This strikes me as one of those articles from the early 1900's that predicted we would all have flying cars by the year 2000. Not to say it isn't possible, but such grandiose claims have a way of not coming true but their deadlines.

Plus as it stands now things we stick in people's heads tend to get infected, which causes serious issues and usually results in re-operation. I think modern surgical science has a long way to go before we are routinely implanting things in people's brains (electively no less) so they can send IM's over Facebook more efficiently or play video games without a joystick. The DNI technology might be developed, but I will be surprised if this is commonplace in just 10 years.

hope you can use one to draw art too, it´s quite anoying when you have mild dyslexia and draw stickfigures that look ugly yet you have the imagination to create people, items, worlds in your mind as easly as I can.

You have no idea how awesome that would be. I can't wait for advanced programming suites that Unwired describes (as these are clearly far more advanced than any IDEs we have for various languages now). Man, having an AI arise from one of those could do some amazing things...I mean, fluff wise, not rules wise (rules wise they'd be no better at making programs than a talented hacker), but if you had an AI that understood coding (as the suites are described) when combined with input from a creative, but not code oriented person you could churn out some pretty amazing VR games in a couple of months.*

*I base this figure on the time it takes to make a complete flash game, which varies from the one trick pony "1 day games" (see: ragdoll avalanche) to the professional looking "1 month games" (which typically do pretty well). Most indie flash developers work on a bi-monthly schedule for releasing games (that is, their main project takes no more than two months, and they'll work on a few 1 day and 1 week games in between). If they hit on something successful then they'll spend two to four months developing that even further, refining, honing, and taking player responses into account (see: epic war--unfortunately I hate all of them and most people dislike #3 the most).