SXSW 2018 Day 5 Session 3: The Final Human-Computer Interface, Your Brain

Session page, including audio: https://schedule.sxsw.com/2018/events/PP98376

Ramses Alcaide, Neurable

How do we interface with our technology?

Voice: Voice interfaces are limited based on locale of use; noisy environments get in their way.

Motion tracking: Great for things that are next to you, but harder to use for things that are out of reach.  If you are pointing at a faraway object, it can be harder to be precise.

Eye tracking: The problem with this interface is that it’s always on; it’s harder to “start” and “stop” using it.  Also, it can be hard to understand what it is the person is wanting to select, and grouping items together can also be difficult.

A brain interface is a great equalizer, and it is not limited by human disabilities; the brain interface is a great democratizer.  Other interfaces do not have this advantage.

One more advantage comes in the ability to interact with augmented reality.  Interaction devices make the interaction with augmented reality more cumbersome and reduce the immersion.  If you have to use your phone, or hand-held devices (as in VR) to control the augmented reality you see, you degrade the experience.  With a brain interface that is not an issue.

In addition, sometimes the hands can be active – for example, a surgeon performing an operation, with augmented reality, cannot use hands to interact with augmented reality, and there may be noise in the operating room interfering with a voice command.  So a brain interface is optimal in such a case.

Different types of brain interfaces:

Proactive – use the brain interface to issue commands such as typing on a keyboard or controlling a pointer.

Very slow, and the equipment required is cumbersome.

Reactive – using our innate information to interact with a software

Some examples:

The brain wave that is generated when we hear a sentence that is nonsensical

Brain waves that indicate urgency or intensity (a deer steps in front of our car)

Brain wave that trigger when something you expect to happen, happens.

The problem with these types of brainwaves is that they are slow and require gel caps, so they are restricted to normal day-to-day usage.  Neurable is creating a breakthrough in this domain, allowing simpler caps to be used and interpreting signals in real-time and with high accuracy: