New hands-free Twitter interface: Brain-computer

Adam Wilson, a University of Wisconsin-Madison biomedical engineering doctoral student, posted a status update on the social networking website Twitter—just by thinking about it (via Short Sharp Science). It was done using software built upon the BCI2000. The software translates thought-induced changes in a scalp's electrical fields to control an on-screen cursor.

BCI2000 is a general-purpose system for brain-computer interface (BCI) research.

Wilson thus demonstrated how "locked-in" patients can couple brain-computer interface technologies with modern communication tools.

People at the other end can be following their thread and never know that the person is disabled. That would really be an enabling type of communication means for those people—and I think it would make them feel, in the online world, that they’re not that much different from everybody else.

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