Reading Your Mind to Tag Images (and Work With Computers)
From: Singularity Hub - 01/10/2010
By: Aaron Saenz

Studies done at Microsoft Research are using electroencephalograph (EEG)
measurements to read users' minds in order to help tag online images. The
researchers say the mind-reading technique is the first step toward a hybrid
human-computer data analysis system. The manual process for tagging images is
often tedious and repetitive, but with the new method of EEG tagging, workers
may be able to perform other tasks during the tagging process. Computers can
recognize shapes and movements very well, but they have a harder time with
categorizing objects in human terms, says Microsoft Research's Desney Tan.
During testing, researchers could determine if the subject was looking at a
face, an animal, or an inanimate object with good results. The researchers
found that no improvement was seen if the viewer was given more than half a
second to look at each image. This leads researchers to think images could be
displayed at that speed with no loss of accuracy. 

Read the entire article at:
http://singularityhub.com/2010/01/10/reading-your-mind-to-tag-images-and-work-with-computers/

Links:
Brain Controlled Robot Follows Mental Commands
http://singularityhub.com/2009/11/24/brain-controlled-robot-follows-mental-commands-video/

Desney Tan
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/desney/