Skipping a Step
Think the Linguistic User Interface is the next step forward in human-machine relations? Maybe. But then again, maybe not. Perhaps we're poising ourselves to skip a step:
Sitting stone still under a skull cap fitted with a couple dozen electrodes, American scientist Peter Brunner stares at a laptop computer. Without so much as moving a nostril hair, he suddenly begins to compose a message -- letter by letter -- on a giant screen overhead.
"B-O-N-J-O-U-R" he writes with the power of his mind, much to the amazement of the largely French audience of scientists and curious onlookers gathered at the four-day European Research and Innovation Exhibition in Paris, which opened Thursday.
All we need is a way for computers to write back to the brain and instant messaging will be replaced by electronic telepathy. On a less whimsical note, this kind of interface will eventually open up whole new worlds of capability and independence for the paralyzed and others with disabilites.
(Via Our Technological Future)
Comments
Linguistic interfacing for computers will always be problematic until such time as computers really understand human language. For them to do so necessitates that they become very close to human, and even then, given the level of misunderstanding caused by humans mistranslating ideas, I think it may still be problematic. Language is very much a cultural and contextual construct, and even a sentient computer will have difficulty having the background to really understand human language, simply by not having been born and raised a human being.
Instead, this neural interface lets computers do what they do best: pick out a pattern on simple sensors and react. The human does most of the work here by learning to control the interface and the computer it talks to. I think the neural interface is a much more reasonable next step than linguistic interfaces.
-Jim
Posted by: Jim Strickland![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.blog.speculist.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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June 10, 2006 02:09 PM
This is also the best route to full-emersion fully convincing VR.
Jim:
You're right, but I you overstate your point a little.
Linguistic interfacing will be useful long before we have self-aware computers. In fact, linguistic interfacing is quite useful already.
Posted by: Stephen Gordon![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.blog.speculist.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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June 12, 2006 03:26 PM