The idea is basically a retake on search engines. Instead of querying using keywords to search appropriate matches, the engine would use a couple of eeg pickups to provide feedback. It would pick a random site and then gauge how "pleased" the user was. If very displeased, it would choose another site that differed substantially from the previous one. It'd be like 21 questions and the wikipedia seven degrees of freedom game combined.
If the controls turned out to be fairly easy to master, more dimensions could be added to the user control by multiplying the number of eeg nodes used. All this decision making would be optimized for the speed that the user could provide feedback. Perhaps one control could alter the speed of the queries while the other provided positive/negative feedback. The idea would be to search the internet at the speed of thought.-- Eubalaena, Sep 02 2011 mindball http://worldwide.es...=&FT=E&locale=en_EPgame involving similar technology [Eubalaena, Sep 02 2011] Monkey hand http://www.youtube....watch?v=gnWSah4RD2Emonkey moving a robotic hand with brain-computer interface, a bit more invasive technique though [Eubalaena, Sep 02 2011] necco mimi http://www.youtube....watch?v=w06zvM2x_lw [not_morrison_rm, Sep 03 2011] Sounds good. (+)-- Thomasunde, Sep 02 2011 This might work. Or it might result in a search engine that always finds pornography, no matter what you started out looking for.
(Also, the bandwidth/dimensionality of EEGs just isn't very high, not because the number of "nodes" (electrodes?) is low, but because the signals are so heavily filtered before they ever reach the scalp. That's why, if you want noninvasive, then magnetoencephalography is probably the way to go. But the idea is attractive as a cool gadget that doesn't require liquid helium or an operating suite.)-- mouseposture, Sep 02 2011 If it can mind read how pleased I am that would be a fun experiment. If I have to decide how good the link is and then consciously send the signal that is too much decision making and might put me in an unpleasantly judgmental frame of mind. The speed of thought can be pretty slow sometimes.
On the other hand if you are just judging how good the link is for this session, for what you want to see this time it's easier than trying to rate pages on a global scale. But the early guesses where the system has no idea what you are looking for are going to be hard to rate except as terrible.-- caspian, Sep 03 2011 //But the early guesses where the system has no idea what you are looking for are going to be hard to rate except as terrible.//
That's true, perhaps optionally one use it to supplement a normal keyword search. Linguistically approximate and then filter through the clutter. Words can be terribly imprecise, which makes them so useful.-- Eubalaena, Sep 03 2011 the sensor's already there, check out the neccomimi link-- not_morrison_rm, Sep 03 2011 on another note, some guy did this a while ago to steer a sailboat. he'd just sit on the meditating, steering the ship. a cool magic trick if you were to hide the leads. "look ma, no hands!"-- Eubalaena, Sep 03 2011 Wait a minute. When I'm researching a beautiful theory, and I come across page which threatens to slay that beautiful theory with an ugly fact, then I am likely to feel displeased - but a search engine which "protected" me from that unpleasant experience, as this one probably would, might not be too good for my standard of theorizing.-- pertinax, Sep 03 2011 random, halfbakery