Now you can make phone calls with your brain

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Sorta. http://www.theaudeo.com/?action=technology

[Doktor Howl]

Sorta. http://www.theaudeo.com/?action=technology

This is my WORST NIGHTMARE.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Sorta. http://www.theaudeo.com/?action=technology

This is my WORST NIGHTMARE.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

So uh... is this plugges in before or after the brain's filtering mechanism?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

So uh... is this plugges in before or after the brain's filtering mechanism?

click on the link.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Oh, are you on your phone? It is worn on the throat, it picks up subvocal vibrations.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

User manual explaining how it works: http://www.theaudeo.com/AudeoSensor-Manual_12022009.pdf

In order to control the muscles, the brain sends tiny
electrical signals through the nerves which then stimulate
particular muscles into action. This stimulation occurs in
the form of Motor Unit Action Potentials (MUAPs), and the
cumulative electrical activity cascades through the muscle
and causes it to contract. In general, most muscles have
a kind of threshold which this electrical activity must
surpass in order to produce physical movement. This is
similar to the concept of a dead-zone in DC motors. Most
people have very refined muscle control above this
threshold, but without any kind of feedback have neither
the ability nor the motivation to develop sub-threshold
control.

The AudeoSensor non-invasively detects and processes
electrical signals generated when a user activates a
nearby muscle. In particular, the AudeoSensor was
specifically developed around the laryngeal muscles
controlling speech production (although the sensor can
perform equally well on most other muscles). When
placed directly over a muscle of interest, it reads an ultra-
clean differential voltage from two stainless steel
electrodes. The highly localized signal can be as small as
10μV (10E-6 Volts), so it is amplified x1000 and digitized
in order to maintain signal integrity. Additionally, the
signal is filtered and processed to result in the most useful
and intuitive representation of muscle activation.
This signal can be accessed by a computer or cell phone
through a Bluetooth connection, however the
AudeoSensor is much more than just a passive signal
stream. Included is a broad array of feedback
mechanisms including visual, tactile, and 2-channel audio,
all fully controllable through the same Bluetooth
connection. The compact and highly integrated design of
the AudeoSensor includes a standalone biofeedback mode
which activates when no wireless connection is present,
allowing basic usage even in the absence of a computer.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Oh, are you on your phone? It is worn on the throat, it picks up subvocal vibrations.

Actually it was a crappy sleep because I didn't want to wake the landlady up for an AC unit sort of thing. Reading comprehension is offline, apparently.

[McGrupp]

This is super cool! I perform nerve conduction studies and work with a lot of neuromuscular patients. I'd be interested to see how this could be adapted for ALS patients. The trick there would be in what the minimum activation would be required. The reason ALS and other motor neuron disease patients lose the ability to speak is due to muscle atrophy.

Still 10 microvolts is pretty small assuming its using the motor action potential that I use when doing NCS (heck, the median nerve has a normal cmap of 6 millivolts). We don't normally do conduction studies to the laryngeal so I'm not sure what the norm would be.

Super neat stuff. I'm going to show it some of the clinic folk in the lab.

Edit:  Scratch that. MUAPs and CMAPs aren't the same thing. Still should work for ALS patients though.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Yeah, on the page I found it one of the speech pathology people was geeking out pretty hard on it.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

I'm pretty sure the technological singularity is actually upon us.

Luckily, we have bureaucrats and corporations stacked up between us and any actual benefit from all this mad science that has been happening lately. Wouldn't want to upset the natural order of things.

[Doktor Howl]

This is super cool!

NO IT FUCKING ISN'T!  I'LL NEVER GET A MOMENT'S PEACE.

[McGrupp]

This is super cool!

NO IT FUCKING ISN'T!  I'LL NEVER GET A MOMENT'S PEACE.

It would be kinda akward to be on a bus and everyone is just moving their throats in barely audible fashion but I'm a sucker for BCI stuff in the same way I am for cinderblock throwing robots.

Found a cool vid of the audeo being used to control a wheelchair: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyQv61899HE

Offtopic: there is a really cool site for how to make your own EEG device along with open source software. http://openeeg.sourceforge.net/doc/modeeg/modeeg.html I guess there is a whole community of people hacking their brains. Some even use it in meditation and try to control their alpha waves using biofeedback. Crazy stuff.

[Doktor Howl]

This is super cool!

NO IT FUCKING ISN'T!  I'LL NEVER GET A MOMENT'S PEACE.

It would be kinda akward to be on a bus and everyone is just moving their throats in barely audible fashion but I'm a sucker for BCI stuff in the same way I am for cinderblock throwing robots.

Those are TOTALLY DIFFERENT.  Cinderblock-throwing robots are SCIENCE, and new ways to bug Dok are science.  Notice the not-terribly subtle difference.

[McGrupp]

This is super cool!

NO IT FUCKING ISN'T!  I'LL NEVER GET A MOMENT'S PEACE.

It would be kinda akward to be on a bus and everyone is just moving their throats in barely audible fashion but I'm a sucker for BCI stuff in the same way I am for cinderblock throwing robots.

Those are TOTALLY DIFFERENT.  Cinderblock-throwing robots are SCIENCE, and new ways to bug Dok are science.  Notice the not-terribly subtle difference.

I think I see the difference but I'm honestly not sure.