Researchers Look to Turn Brain Power into Tweets From: PC World - 04/22/2009 System would allow those who can't communicate to do so using Twitter. Some might say using your brain to Tweet would ruin Twitter, but University of Wisconsin-Madison and Wadsworth Center (Albany, NY) researchers have good cause for working in this area: They're looking to help improve communications for people whose brains work but are without use of other parts of their bodies typically used to communicate (those with ALS, spinal cord injuries, etc.) The system translates brain activity into changes on a computer screen that create Tweets. Read this article at: http://www.pcworld.com/article/163527/article.html?tk=nl_dnxnws Links: Researchers use brain interface to post to Twitter http://www.news.wisc.edu/16576 Justin Williams http://www.engr.wisc.edu/bme/faculty/williams_justin.html Gerwin Schalk http://www.wadsworth.org/resnres/bios/schalk.htm Video http://nitrolab.engr.wisc.edu/media/P3Twitter.mov Twitter Telepathy: Researchers Turn Thoughts into Tweets http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/braintweet.html Scientist updates Twitter using only his mind http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/science/5192573/Scientist-updates-Twitter-using-only-his-mind.html --- Researchers Use Brain Interface to Post to Twitter From: ACM TechNews - 04/24/2009 University of Wisconsin-Madison biomedical engineering doctoral student Adam Wilson recently posted a status update on Twitter using only his thoughts. The message, "using EEG to send tweet," demonstrated a way for locked-in patients, those with no movement capabilities, to use brain-computer interfaces to communicate. Wilson is a part of a research effort to develop communications systems for people who cannot move but have normal brain function. "We started thinking that moving a cursor on a screen is a good scientific exercise," says UW-Madison professor Justin Williams, Wilson's advisor. "But when we talk to people who have locked-in syndrome or a spinal-cord injury, their No. 1 concern is communication." The new communication interface is based on brain activity related to changes in an object on a screen. The interface displays a keyboard on a computer screen, with each of the letters flashing individually. If a patient is focusing on a single letter and nothing is happening, there is no change in brain activity, but once that letter flashes, the brain recognizes that something is different and there is a momentary change in brain activity. Wilson says it is a slow process at first but that users improve as they use the interface, reaching up to eight characters per minute. The brain-based Twitter communication system represents one of the first uses of brain-computer interface techniques and Internet technologies, says Wadsworth Center research scientist Gerwin Schalk, who contributed to the project.