新電腦介面 用意念撥打手機

來自台灣的聖地牙哥加大研究員鍾子平，研發運算神經科技有重大突破，人們將可透過腦波傳遞就能撥打電話，可望幫助傷殘人士及一般民眾。

《神經工程學期刊》（Journal of Neural Engineering）報導了有關實驗，據指出，鍾子平和他的團隊開發出新方法，可以用意念來控制手機撥號。大多數人只需簡短的訓練，就可操作這個新研發的人腦電腦介面，準確度近百分之百。
鍾子平是聖地牙哥加大Swartz運算神經科學中心研究員，他表示，該系統攜帶方便，除可協助嚴重傷殘人士外，日後會有更廣泛用途。例如，人們無須碰觸手機即可通話，或可用來測量駕駛人或航管員的注意力，檢測他們是否昏昏欲睡。

新系統依賴貼在頭皮上的腦電圖（EEG）電極來分析腦電波活動，研究員把EEG連接到藍芽組件，訊號傳送至諾基亞手機上，訊號再由手機內程式處理。十名受試人士按指示，輸入十個數字的電話號碼，其中七人做出百分之百的準確度。

Dialing Your Cellphone With Your Thoughts Alone



Researchers from the University of California in San Diego have developed a Bluetooth device that allows the wearer to dial a ten-digit number using their thoughts alone. Their experimental device was the subject of a recent study, published in the Journal of Neural Engineering.

In their study, volunteers wore special electrode-laden headgear and were shown a screen with the numbers zero through nine, similar to a phone’s touch-tone dialing pad. The difference was that each number flashed at a slightly different speed. By concentrating on the number they wished to dial, the device detected the speed of the flashing number by observing the user’s brain activity. It’s a bit tedious, but the researchers found users could control the system with 70-85% accuracy.

Though this may seem like an awful lot to go through to simply dial a phone number, the study’s primary goal was to demonstrate that brain computer interface technology can work with the same everyday technology millions of people use. In their abstract, the researchers acknowledge that bringing these kind of cutting-edge interfaces to a broader audience is a huge challenge, but wanted to show that these can be overcome. They write:

To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to demonstrate a truly portable, cost-effective and miniature cell-phone-based platform for online [brain computer interfaces].

This won’t be the hot new iPhone peripheral anytime soon, and you won’t be tweeting your thoughts for quite a long while, but scientists are already showing that these kinds of innovations aren’t really that far off.