Microsoft mind reader

Not content with running your computer, Microsoft now wants to read your mind too.

The company says that it is hard to properly evaluate the way people interact with computers since questioning them at the time is distracting and asking questions later may not produce reliable answers. “Human beings are often poor reporters of their own actions,” the company says.

Microsoft researchers are working on a MIND_READING SYSTEM – hardware and software that can “interface directly with the human brain.” The company’s R&D department has figured out how to use a “low-cost electroencephalograph(EEG)” for “detecting specific forms of brain activity.” Research papers associated with the project say that “knowing the state of the user as well as the tasks they are performing may provide key information that would allow us to design context sensitive systems that adapt themselves to optimally support the state of the user.”The technology might also “know the precise intention of a user who searches for an ambiguous term.” Whether users will want Microsoft reading their brain waves is another matter altogether. Read the full Microsoft mind reading patent application