Researchers Aim To "Read Minds" of PC Users

hhavensteincw writes "Scientists at Tufts University are researching the use of light aimed at the forehead to measure the stress, work overload, or distraction a computer user may be feeling, as a way to adjust the UI to adapt to a user's emotional state. The research combines biomedical engineering and machine learning to adjust the UI. The project, which requires users to wear a futuristic head band, uses light to measure the flow of oxygenated blood to the brain that signals a user's rising stress levels typically associated with increasingly difficult tasks."

Does it run as a daemon?

[BadAnalogyGuy (945258)]

I wonder how a resident daemon would interpret the user's reaction after typing "rm -rf /" instead of "rm -rf ./"

How would it adjust the UI to fit his mood? Perhaps a soothing blue would be in order.

Re:Does it run as a daemon?

[Xiph (723935)]

Headline seems a bit sensationalists, they're not reading minds, they MEASURING STRESS.

Re:

[arivanov (12034)]

Yep.

And I bet a case of beer that the first PHB to purchase the device will put it to use as a lie detector in teleconference meetings straight away: "Jones, your stress levels have increased when we discussed the project deadlines. Are you hiding something?"

No thanks, I would not like something like that hooked up to my computer...

Re:

[by Anonymous Coward]

No thanks, I would not like something like that hooked up to my computer...

That's company's computer to you. You don't get to say what will be hooked to it.
Hmm, now that you've mentioned that, are you hiding something about project deadlines?

Your boss

Joke aside, congratulation, you've done it... after your quite juicy advertising the benefits to PHBs (depiction of inflicted fear and PHB undisturbed domination), they WILL make it mandatory!

Re:

[somersault (912633)]

Lay off him just now. Resume indoctrination when you get these things hooked up to some high voltage testicle shockers

Your Boss

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[niceone (992278)]

Headline seems a bit sensationalists, they're not reading minds, they MEASURING STRESS.

Well, they are using the colour of your forehead to determine how many times you have whacked your head into the screen in desperation recently, which probably correlates well with your stress level.

Re:

[archeopterix (594938)]

I wonder how a resident daemon would interpret the user's reaction after typing

Ha! So there ARE demons that read minds! Shame on you, doctor, for arguing with me! *mutters*

Re:Does it run as a daemon?

[onion2k (203094)]

How would it adjust the UI to fit his mood? Perhaps a soothing blue would be in order.

I'm on Windows here, and I find it incredibly annoying when the UI changes to 'soothing blue'.

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[Ed Avis (5917)]

Why would you ever want to type 'rm -rf ./'?

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[Lavene (1025400)]

Why would you ever want to type 'rm -rf ./'?

Because it looks cooler and feels more dangerous than 'rm -rf *' ?

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[Fizzl (209397)]

I did once:

"rm -fr /etc/* ~"
                  ^--- Notice the space

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[alexhs (877055)]

How would it adjust the UI to fit his mood?

It seems you just made a big mistake.
Would you want me to help you writing your resignation letter ?

Yup

[Corporate Troll (537873)]

Raise of my temperature means I'm wanking off at porn.... No surprise to me ;-)

Re:

[slittle (4150)]

Raise of my stress level means I don't have a god damn 9 of diamonds!!!!

Re:

[Big Nothing (229456)]

Yes, but I would imagine that the oxygenated blood would be flowing to... not your brain?

I, for one, ...

[darthflo (1095225)]

... welcome our mind-reading, futuristic-headband-enforcing UI-adjusting overlords!

Great!

[curty (42764)]

Now my boss and work colleagues will know whether or not to approach me, by looking at the colour of my screen first!

Re:

[nargileh (1113371)]

Well it's more like, your boss will know exactly how stressed you are and might decide he can crank it up a notch and give you extra work & stress. And he won't need to look at your screen, he will have a dashboard with stress metrics for all his employees on his own desktop. The adaptive UI story is just a smokescreen deployed at employee level to hide the real intent of this device.

2001

[kcbrown (7426)]

"Scientists at Tufts University are researching the use of light aimed at the forehead to measure the stress, work overload, or distraction a computer user may be feeling, as a way to adjust the UI to adapt to a user's emotional state.

Aha. I always wondered what HAL's light was for...

"Look Dave, I can see you're really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over."

If my computer "adjusts" its UI the way HAL did, I'm gonna kick it's ass...

Re:2001

[JustOK (667959)]

its just the computer moving the apostrophe key because of your stress level

nothing new, nothing useful

[kabrakan (13409)]

God, there are so many stories about this kind of tech. But you know, its not a very useful interface unless it has the right software to communicate with it--Like intelligent agents that show their own emotion, interacting with yours. I mean, does reading my physiology and figuring out that i'm stressed going to make the web page load faster?

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[crowbarsarefornerdyg (1021537)]

Only if it's porn.

Easy

[Joebert (946227)]

Allow me to save someone millions of dollars in wasted researh funds.

boobies boobies ass ass boobies boobies penis whoah where did that come from boobies boobies ass ass boobies boobies

Re:

[onion2k (203094)]

You'd question seeing a penis but you're fine with all those donkeys?

Hmm...

[Erikderzweite (1146485)]

If they make it possible to make interface work better if I am stressed, I will have only one question - why not turn the "stressed" option on by default?
I simply don't get it, if they think they can make programs work safer/faster/better, why can't they do this without the need for me to be stressed.

Seriously...

[tcdk (173945)]

.. what would you use this for?

Lets say that you application ,at any give time can know the stress level of the user. On a scale from 1 to 11.

How would you want an application that you use or develop to changes it workings depending on this?

There's an example of workload sharing in TFA, but really, there's a fine line between "this person is stressed and working well with that", and "this person is overstressed, and we better share the load a bit".

And for everyday use... "You seem stressed - I'll delay all your incoming mails (including the one you are stressed over not having arrived yet)" ...

I just don't think our computers are intelligent enough right now to use this information to anything useful...

Re:

[pedestrian crossing (802349)]

. what would you use this for?

It could be useful (the stress-reading portion, anyway) for UI testing. People can't always clearly remember/articulate problems with an interface, this could give you pretty accurate feedback.

It could also have applications in learning management systems.

But at this point it sounds like a solution in search of a problem.

Re:

[Joe Tie. (567096)]

.. what would you use this for?

Social networking. The kids, what with their rock n' roll, baggy pants, facebook and whatnot, love this kind of thing. I seriously think that if they manged to get this fashionable, the current middle/high school set would pay their parents money every which way to have "Mood: Crinkly forehead emo" automatically updating on their networking system of choice.

Later down the road, I could see this 'possibly' working with more wired environments. Think a smarthouse that's noti

Re:

[mrjb (547783)]

And for everyday use... "You seem stressed - I'll delay all your incoming mails (including the one you are stressed over not having arrived yet)" ... Clippy, is that you?

Obligatory

[StarfishOne (756076)]

1. You're late for a presentation

2. You fire up PowerPoint in a desperate attempt to make some crucial changes to keep your potential customers happy

3. Your computer sees that you're stressed... which it considers to be unhealthy

4. Then Clippy pops up and says 'I can't do that Dave'!

Arggg - I am Cliipy's brain!

[TapeCutter (624760)]

If they take this to the next step we're all screwed!

Clippy with a direct feed from the users brain would be like a tinfoil hat infected with a CIA root kit. Mark my words: They have been plugging mice into computers for decades, mice are the ideal lab animal, it won't be long before corporate technology is able to reproduce tinfoil hats, soon as you put on the infected hat - bam - they suck your brain so dry that start voting for your favorite on "Big Brother".

It's called functional near-infrared spectroscopy

[DocJohn (81319)]

This technique is a type of functional neuroimaging technology that offers a relatively non-invasive, safe, portable, and low-cost method of indirect and direct monitoring of brain activity. By measuring changes in near-infrared light, it allows researchers to monitor blood flow and blood oxygenation in the front cortex (only) of the brain. It is still a new technique, so it is not yet widely used in research, but it shows promising results in studies done to-date.

http://psychcentral.com/lib/2007/what-is-fu [psychcentral.com]

Re:

[chuckymonkey (1059244)]

So what you're saying is that tinfoil will protect me right?

Look the data is already in

[eclectro (227083)]

This is what the different PC users are really thinking;

Microsoft PC user: I've been pwned.

Macintosh PC user: Steve Jobs glow is supernatural.

Linux PC user: Microsoft die! die! die!

BSD PC user: Not dead yet.

Call me Kreskin.

And then what?

[hcdejong (561314)]

As stress levels rise, I want the computer to get out of my way as much as possible, not have Clippy pop up saying, "It seems you're trying to accomplish a difficult task. Do you want me to mess it up for you?"
Also, if there's a way the computer can make my life easier, it should do that already rather than wait until I'm stressed out.

Compulsory Vista joke

[jsiren (886858)]

You are getting stressed. Cancel or Allow?

I'm thinking "Sniper!"

[giafly (926567)]

... and my stress is correspondingly high, as I dive under the desk.

Is there a video game concept here? Real-life Gears of War or something?

Good intention but bad effect

[suv4x4 (956391)]

It'll only increase my stress levels if I'm nervous and a dumb algorithm shuffles the UI in front of me in attempt to make it better.

In such moments I'd rather prefer consistency and things I know. The errors I know, the controls I know, in the position and colors I know.

It's been done.

[BiggerIsBetter (682164)]

Ask anyone in prepress or DTP - Apple Macs have had stress detectors built in for years! As the deadline approaches, you can almost guarantee it'll crash more as you get more stressed. I read that the computer does it because it thinks you're working too hard for your own good.

This is why apple does well

[Joe Tie. (567096)]

which requires users to wear a futuristic head band

This is one of those few times when I find myself wishing for more female representation. For some reason, male geeks just don't seem to understand the publics fashion sense. Futuristic headband=dork headgear. The look is 'more' important than the functionality when it comes to getting anything which needs to be worn out the door. And if it means a headband, it's never going to get into public use.

Stressful UI

[Bai jie (653604)]

Why would they need the UI to adjust? Wouldn't their efforts be better spent making a UI that was as little stress inducing as possible and have it run that way full time?

It changes the UI when you're stressed?

[WhitePanther5000 (766529)]

What if...

1. You're stressed about having to learn a new interface
2. The interface changes
3. See #1

I had a concept about this at one point

[east coast (590680)]

Back in the Amiga days I had an idea of using different biological readings with a video game. I never went anywhere with it but the basic idea was that dependent on the players physical state (maybe even far enough to decipher their emotions based on different readings) the game play could change in some fashion. Not too advanced of a concept but with as far as things have come since the late 80s/early 90s I think something like this could be done cost effectively today.

Head band? Bah

[hcdejong (561314)]

I want a Back to the Future-style suction cup.

Cancel

[Yetihehe (971185)]

"measure the stress, work overload, or distraction a computer user may be feeling"
You are being distracted.
Cancel or allow?

chip reader

[CmdrGravy (645153)]

Never mind the computer knowing what I think, I'd like a device that let me know what the f#ck it is thinking, or better still the people responsible for the f#cking stupid f#cking program I'm trying to use.

( HUMAN CMDRGRAVY HAS BEEN SEDATED, HE WILL BE UNAVAILABLE FOR FURTHER COMMENT FOR SOME TIME )

Re:

[pedestrian crossing (802349)]

What is really needed is a computer which does what I want and not what it thinks I want.

Sounds like you should be using a CLI!

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[timster (32400)]

So he asks for a computer that does what he wants, and you want to give him one that does what he tells it to do? Something is wrong with this picture.

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[CmdrGravy (645153)]

This is incorrect, Chuck Norris feels the same level of pain as we do only he knows that pain is only a feeling and not an excuse for giving up.

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[CmdrGravy (645153)]

Indeed, if I'm feeling an optomistic mood my accounts software should increase the credit related figures on the screen whereas if I'm nervous it should ensure that nothing which should normally add up does and if I'm 'anticipating a quiet day of doing not much' it should launch various viruses throughout the network, begin to erase it's backups and crash. Pretty much like it does already actually.