Positive Technology Journal

The EU-funded five-year project COGAIN (Communication by Gaze Interaction) will attempt to make eye-tracking technologies more affordable for people with disabilities and extend the potential use of the devices to enable users to live more independently.

From the project website:

COGAIN is a network of excellence on Communication by Gaze Interaction, supported by the European Commission's IST 6th framework program. COGAIN integrates cutting-edge expertise on interface technologies for the benefit of users with disabilities. The network aims to gather Europe's leading expertise in eye tracking integration with computers in a research project on assistive technologies for citizens with motor impairments. Through the integration of research activities, the network will develop new technologies and systems, improve existing gaze-based interaction techniques, and facilitate the implementation of systems for everyday communication.

Read the full report

Via VRoot

Polhemus, the industry leader in 6 Degree of Freedom (6DOF) motion capture, tracking and digitizing technologies is proud to announce MINUTEMAN™, the new low cost (under $1,500) 3-Degree-of-Freedom (3DOF) tracking product. MINUTEMAN represents a quantum leap in new technology and state of the art Digital Signal Processor (DSP) electronics which results in a major price reduction for tracking technology. MINUTEMAN is drift free, has the speed of 75 Hz per sensor and offers ease of use via an intuitive Graphical User Interface (GUI). The electronics unit (E-Pod), which is powered by the USB interface and contains the electromagnetic source, is only slightly larger than a pack of playing cards. Full InertiaCube2 emulation software is also provided for plug-and-play hardware replacement without having to worry about rewriting code. The combination of all these attributes clearly positions MINUTEMAN as a new class of electromagnetic tracking, offering significant improvements over competitive technologies.

Via Brain Waves

$25,000 Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology is now accepting entries. Deadline: June 15, 2006.

From the website:

The Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology acknowledges the increasing importance of this research in advancing our understanding of how the brain and nervous system function – a quest that seems destined for dramatic expansion in the coming decades. This international prize, established in 2002, is intended to encourage and support the work of promising young neurobiologists who have received their PhD or MD within the past 10 years. The prize is awarded annually to one young scientist for the most outstanding neurobiological research conducted by him/her during the past three years, as described in a 1,000-word entrance essay.

Via Brain Waves 

According to the Neurotechnology Industry 2006 Report, neurotechnology revenues reach $110 Billion.

Produced by Neuroinsight, the report provides a unified market-based framework to help investors, companies and governments quantify opportunities, determine risks and understand the dynamics of this market.

I found this US technology patent, which claims a method for manipulating the nervous system of a subject via broadcast television signals, DVD, and computer terminal (if the link does not work, go to this page and type the number 6,506,148 in the "Query" bar):

Via We Make Money Not Art

Researchers from Sony Intelligence Dynamics Laboratories and a nursery school in San Diego are conducting an experiment that focuses on how children can develop emotions toward robots. Results of this research could be used to develop smarter and friendlier humanoid robots, with a huge commercial potential.

From Neuromarketing

Neuroscientists Gabriele Gratton and Monica Fabiani at the University of Illinois Beckman Institute’s Cognitive Neuroimaging Laboratory are using very intense near-infrared illumination to measure neuronal activity in the cortex:

According to these researchers, the EROS system can measure very short intervals of activity, down to the millisecond level. Its biggest shortcoming is the inability to detect activity more than a few centimeters deep, but it is a relative unexpensive technique (as compared to fMRI and PET) that is not invasive to the test subject.

More information about EROS can be found in this paper entitled: "Fast and Localized Event-Related Optical Signals (EROS) in the Human Occipital Cortex: Comparisons with the Visual Evoked Potential and fMRI" (Neuroimage 6, 168–180 (1997)

Via Emerging Technology Trends 

Researchers from Max Plank Institute (Germany) and Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden) have developed a new virtual reality prototype, which gives users the illusion of movement while being seated. According to developers, this approach could lead to commercial low-cost VR simulators in the near future.

The simulator "exploits a vection illusion of the brain, which makes us believe we are moving when actually we are stationary. The same can be experienced, for instance, when you are stopped at a traffic light in your car and the car next to you edges forward. Your brain interprets this peripheral visual information as though you are moving backwards".

More information about the scientific background of this approach can be found in the paper entitled "Influence of Auditory Cues on the Visually Induced Self-Motion Illusion (Circular Vection) in Virtual Reality" (PDF format, 9 pages, 1.22 MB).

The VR system is the main outcome of the EU-funded project POEMS "Perceptually Oriented Ego — Motion Simulation".

Foundation and Practice of Neurofeedback for the Treatment of Epilepsy.

Appl Psychophysiol Biofeedback. 2006 Apr 14;

Authors: Sterman MB, Egner T

This review provides an updated overview of the neurophysiological rationale, basic and clinical research literature, and current methods of practice pertaining to clinical neurofeedback. It is based on documented findings, rational theory, and the research and clinical experience of the authors. While considering general issues of physiology, learning principles, and methodology, it focuses on the treatment of epilepsy with sensorimotor rhythm (SMR) training, arguably the best established clinical application of EEG operant conditioning. The basic research literature provides ample data to support a very detailed model of the neural generation of SMR, as well as the most likely candidate mechanism underlying its efficacy in clinical treatment. Further, while more controlled clinical trials would be desirable, a respectable literature supports the clinical utility of this alternative treatment for epilepsy. However, the skilled practice of clinical neurofeedback requires a solid understanding of the neurophysiology underlying EEG oscillation, operant learning principles and mechanisms, as well as an in-depth appreciation of the ins and outs of the various hardware/software equipment options open to the practitioner. It is suggested that the best clinical practice includes the systematic mapping of quantitative multi-electrode EEG measures against a normative database before and after treatment to guide the choice of treatment strategy and document progress towards EEG normalization. We conclude that the research literature reviewed in this article justifies the assertion that neurofeedback treatment of epilepsy/seizure disorders constitutes a well-founded and viable alternative to anticonvulsant pharmacotherapy.

Via the Observer

30-year-old artist Christian Nold has created a "emotion mapping" device that allows people to compare their moods with their surroundings. It measures not just major reactions that tend to stick in the memory, but also the degrees of stimulation caused by speaking to a stranger, crossing the road or listening to birdsong. Emotion mapping is the result of the combination of two existing technologies: skin galvanic response sensor, which records the changing sweat levels on the skin as a measure of mental arousal and Global Positioning System. By calling up data from the finger cuffs, emotion mapping displays the user's fluctuating level of arousal, expressed as peaks and troughs along the route. So a walk down a country lane might produce only a mild curve. But dashing across a busy road or being confronted by a mugger might show up as a sudden spike.

And here is the tool and what Christian did with it. Its actually worth seeing - especially the "Google Earth" version of the emotionmap:

Via Wired

Wired reports that MIT researchers are developing a wearable computer with a computational model of "mind-reading".

The prosthetic device should be able to infer affective-cognitive mental states from head and facial displays of people in real time, and communicate these inferences to the wearer via sound and/or tactile feedback.

According to MIT researchers, the system could help people afflicted by autism (who lack the ability to ascertain others' emotional status) in doing the "mind reading". A broader motivation of the project is to explore the role of technology in promoting social-emotional intelligence of people and to understand more about how social-emotional skills interact with learning.

A prototype of ESIP was unveiled at at the Body Sensor Networks 2006 international workshop at MIT's Media Lab last week. The video cameras captured facial expressions and head movements, then fed the information to a desktop computer that analyzed the data and gave real-time estimates of the individuals' mental states, in the form of color-coded graphs.

Call for Papers
PervasiveHealth Conference 2006
Inssbruck, Austria, November 29th - December 1st 2006.
www.pervasivehealth.org

Sponsored by:
-IEEE EMB Society,
-ACM Association for Computing Machinery
-CREATE-NET Center for REsearch And Telecommunication Experimentation for NETworked communities,
-ICST International Communication Sciences and Technology Association

Via VRoot (From New Scientist):

A specialised microchip that could communicate with thousands of individual brain cells has been developed by European scientists.

The device will help researchers examine the workings of interconnected brain cells, and might one day enable them to develop computers that use live neurons for memory.

The computer chip is capable of receiving signals from more than 16,000 mammalian brain cells, and sending messages back to several hundred cells. Previous neuron-computer interfaces have either connected to far fewer individual neurons, or to groups of neurons clumped together.

Via Pasta and Vinegar 

Nicolas Nova (Pasta and Vinegar) has found an article describing a a curious device: Telebeads: Social Network Mnemonics for Teenagers by Jean-Baptiste Labrune and Wendy Mackay (IDC2006)

From the article: 

This article presents the design of Telebeads, a conceptual exploration of mobile mnemonic artefacts. Developed together with five 10-14 year olds across two participatory design sessions, we address the problem of social network massification by allowing teenagers to link individuals or groups with wearable objects such as handmade jewelery. We propose different concepts and scenarios using mixed-reality mobile interactions to augment crafted artefacts and describe a working prototype of a bluetooth luminous ring. We also discuss what such communication appliances may offer in the future with respect to interperception, experience networks and creativity analysis.

The ring addresses two primary functions requested by the teens: providing a physical instantiation of a particular person in a wearable object and allowing direct communication with that person. (…) We have just completed an ejabberd server, running on Linux on a PDA, which will serve as a smaller, but more powerful telebead interface

Scientific American Mind has a free online article about computer simulations of the mind. The article analyzes how recent technological advances are narrowing the gap between human brains and circuitry.

Via New Scientist

 
Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute in Berlin and Charité, the medical school of Berlin Humboldt University in Germany, have developed and succesfully tested a brain-computer interface, which could provide a way for paralysed patients to operate computers, or for amputees to operate electronically controlled artificial limbs. 

The device allows to type messages onto a computer screen by mentally controlling the movement of a cursor. A user must wear a cap containing EEG electrodes, and imagine moving their left or right arm in order to manoeuvre the cursor around.

The device was recently presented at the CeBit electronics fair in Hanover, Germany.

Read full article 

From VRoot 

First-person experience and usability of co-located interaction in a projection-based virtual environment

A. Simon

Virtual Reality Software and Technology, Proceedings of the ACM symposium on Virtual reality software and technology, Pages: 23 - 30, 2005;

Large screen projection-based display systems are very often not used by a single user alone, but shared by a small group of people. We have developed an interaction paradigm allowing multiple users to share a virtual environment in a conventional single-view stereoscopic projection-based display system, with each of the users handling the same interface and having a full first-person experience of the environment. Multi-viewpoint images allow the use of spatial interaction techniques for multiple users in a conventional projection-based display.

Via Smart Mobs

Jon Lebkowsky (WorldChanging) interviews Adam Greenfield about his new book "Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing"

WorldChanging: So you're actually coming from a user experience perspective in your analysis of ubicomp?

Adam Greenfield: That's the genesis of it, yeah. That was the real emotional hook for me, just thinking about people having to configure their toilets and people having to configure their teapots to boil a kettle of tea. And just
taking a direct analogy with the technical systems that are around us now - you know, dropped cellphone calls and the blue screen of death, and everything that we're familiar with from the PC and mobile infrastructure.

WorldChanging: The blue toilet of death! (Laughter.)

Adam Greenfield: Can you imagine? And I think what heightened the sense of urgency was that this stuff was moving beyond prototypes in short order. It was moving toward consumer products, toward the digital home and digital convergence. The products were starting to be packaged and shipped. And still nobody was talking about the nonlinear interactions of network systems in one space all operating at once - it's as if none of the people who were designing them had, not so much thought, but felt what it would be like to sit in the middle of a room where you've got fifteen different technical interfaces around you, and you're responding to all of them at once, and they're all responding to you at once.

A List Apart presents an introduction of Everyware. Free sample sections are available at the Everyware mini site.