st Google Glass telekinetic app allows users to take pictures with their thoughts (VIDEO)
A new telekinetic app operates with Google Glass to harness the power of the mind in order to control functions.
MindRDR, developed by British firm This Place, links Google Glass with another piece of attachable hardware, the Neurosky EEG biosensor, that picks up brainwaves, which the app then translates into action. A function is carried out based on the amount of concentration and relaxation by the user.
Thus far, MindRDR, available at GitHub from Thursday, is limited to taking photos and sharing them on social media outlets.
The app takes brainwaves measured by the biosensor and superimposes a meter reading on Google Glass’s camera view. As the user focuses more on the desired task, the meter rises in the Glass view, and the app snaps a photograph. Focus more, the meter goes up again and the photo is posted on sites like Twitter and Facebook.
To avoid taking the photo or to discard the photo, the user must relax his or her thoughts, causing the meter to go down in the Glass camera view.
Google Glass formerly required a touch or voice command to achieve the same actions.
“Google Glass is one of the world’s most recognizable and popular pieces of wearable technology, but after getting our hands on it, the challenge of connecting it to brainwaves was one we could not resist,”said Dusan Hamlin, founder and CEO of This Place, according to the Daily Mail.
MindRDR software is open source at this point, as This Place says it hopes the app will be advanced to“train” users to concentrate better, to help play games, or for medical applications that could be used to allow more communication opportunities for the disabled.
“In the future, MindRDR could give those with conditions like locked-in syndrome, severe multiple sclerosis or quadriplegia the opportunity to interact with the wider world through wearable technology like Google Glass,” said Chloe Kirton, creative director at This Place.
“This Place is already in conversation with Professor Stephen Hawking, among others, about the possibilities MindRDR could bring as the product evolves.”
Kirton told TechCruch that MindRDR is the only app that connects Google Glass with telekinesis technology.
Some see the technology as another step in the erosion of privacy in society, as the app allows for photos to be taken more covertly than is now possible, not to mention the dangers of allowing tech giant Google a more explicit avenue into user thought processes.
Yet This Place stresses MindRDR’s possibilities to enhance user experience.
“Imagine a world where you can interact with wearable devices just by thinking about the content you want,” Hamlin said. “That’s the world we’re building, and we’re just getting started.”
