AlterEgo- the mind boggling device

Can you imagine a world where you don’t have to speak anything and you get your answers just through your thoughts? Nowadays there is google assistant, amazon alexa which responds to your voice and makes your job easier. But what if you don’t need to speak too as researchers at MIT have designed a wearable device which will respond to your thoughts. The device is named- “Alterego”. It can basically read your mind through the “silent speech” system process. In this process we move our jaw and neck part to say a word internally but it is not audible to us or other person.

Working of the machine

The system communicates with user through the help of a pair of “bone-conducting headphones” by transmitting vibrations from the face to the ear. You will not be interrupted while your conversation or hearing task is going on.

The device circles around the user’s ear, touches their jawline and gets attached (pasted) under the Lip part on the jaw. The device has electrodes that pick up neuromuscular signals in your jaw area and face through the internal talks going in our mind that is through the movement of internal speech articulators. These electric signals are then transferred to machine learning system that analyses the data received and matching the signals with proper understandable words. The conversations that happen between our mind and the machine are private. Right now it is limited to answer your queries within the 20 words programmed into it but this is going to advance in the future updates.

Applications of AlterEgo

• ·         It can be used while playing chess or Chinese board game “go”.
  
• ·         It can be used for solving simple mathematical problems.
• ·         It can be used for asking query from google and getting our desired answers.
  
• ·         It can also be used for controlling what we watch on TV like the scrolling options and selecting a movie option.
  
• ·         It can be used to control “Internet of things” devices and also used as a language translator.
• ·         This device can be really helpful for people suffering from speech impairments.  

AlterEgo wants to combine the power of AI, computer and internet with the human mind. Alterego project is headed by Arnav Kapur, MIT graduate. The team plans to make the device more advanced so that it can be helpful for the disabled persons.  This device is currently not for sale as it is in the process of development.

The future is “tap”

The gesture controlled technology has come up in various smart devices in the recent times. The Xbox gaming device has gesture controlled Kinect sensor through which we can play games like lawn tennis. Then some apple devices like the iphone x and Macbook pro have in built gesture enabled functions for swiping the screen or closing the screen.

tap working 

Now a wearable keyboard & mouse combination has come up which is called by the name “tap”. So as the name suggests you just have to tap with your fingers on any flat surface and you will able to type on your pc or phone and even use a virtual mouse without even contacting it. It has 5 sensors connected through a strap and is worn through your 5 fingers and you can tap your fingers on any flat surface to type in the letters of your computer or smart phone keyboards without touching any physical or touch screen keyboard. It connects to your PC or phone just through Bluetooth and nothing else, so it easy to setup and use. One tap denotes a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) and multiple taps leads to the formation of other alphabets.

Even works with VR

It has 8 hours of battery life which is sufficient but sometimes it depends on the user. Tap works with computer, phone, tablet and even VR. As it is connected to the devices with Bluetooth, we can tap from anywhere and not necessarily sitting just near the device. The sensors attached to the thumb acts as a mouse through which you can play games also. The tap comes with a gaming technology Tap genius through which we can learn how to use the tap within few days.

The tap comes inside a beautiful case which also acts a charger. Tap is compatible with some of the android as well as ios apps.  It costs around 180 us dollars.