Hacker News

Decoding silent reading from non-invasive EEG

11 points by root-parent ago | 5 comments

doodlebugging |next [-]

I'm not interested in seeing this technology progress any further. The ability to read someone's inner, unspoken thoughts is too easy to weaponize against them.

I wonder whether a subject could poison the process by consciously thinking about something unrelated in the same way that public speakers used to get past stage-fright. As you look out across the audience picture something funny, like your boss in a pink tutu.

butvacuum |root |parent |next [-]

unfortunately we already know about subvocalization.

ungreased0675 |root |parent |previous [-]

I agree. Not all topics are worth exploring. We don’t have to develop every dystopian-enabling technology. Build something else please.

PMunch |previous [-]

Having proper sub-vocalization interfaces would be so cool! A 19-channel EEG does seem a bit invasive though (from a social aspect, I understand that it's used here in a medical context).

WalterGR |root |parent [-]

Subvocalization can be decoded from facial muscles.

MIT’s AlterEgo project does that. It’s been spun off into a private company (with no shipping product yet.) Discussed here, with 130 comments, 11 months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45174125