mit's 'brainput' offloads human multitasking to a...

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Home (/) News (/news) Technology (/news/technology) Brainput () Google announces ball shaped Nexus Q media streamer (/news/archive/2012 06/27/nexusq) (/news/archive/2012-06/27/nexus-q) In California at Google's I/O conference, the search giant has announced an intriguing ball shaped media streaming device, running Android » (/news/archive/201206/27/nexusq) This rockpaperscissors robot cheats (/news/archive/201206/27/rpsrobot) Humanpowered helicopter smashes flight record (/news/archive/201206/25/humanpowered helicopterrecord) Technology (/news/technology) Culture (/news/culture) Science (/news/science) Business (/news/business) Gaming (/news/gaming) Ideas Bank (/news/ideasbank) Geek Dad (/news/geekdad) Nate Lanxon (/news/natelanxonsblog) David Rowan (/news/davidrowansblog) The Great Transition (/news/thegreattransition) By Duncan Geere (/search/author/Duncan+Geere) 15 May 12 (Tue, 15 May 2012 13:00:00 +01:00) Leave a comment (#CommentList) Related features Brain scans show how multitasking is harder for seniors (/news/archive/2011 04/12/multitaskingbrains) Exploring the uncanny valley of how brains react to humanoids (/news/archive/2011 07/19/uncannyvalley tested) KinectBot responds to gestural commands (/news/archive/2010 11/19/kinecthack3d mapping) How Cynthia Breazeal is teaching robots how to be human (/magazine/archive/2011/04/start/best friendbots) MIT's 'Brainput' offloads human multitasking to a computer A team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has developed an experimental system (http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/40406/?p1=A1) that can detect when a human is trying to multitask, and help out. It's called "Brainput", and is essentially a portable fMRI scanner combined with software. By measuring and analysing brain activity, the device detects when you're multitasking and can offload some of that work to a computer. In a paper, the researchers described how they set up a maze with two remotecontrolled robots (http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012 04/10/robooctopus) that needed to be both navigated simultaneously switching back and forth between the two. When Brainput detected that the driver was multitasking, it was able to detect one of the robots to use its own sensors to help navigate making it partially autonomous. The operator's overall performance improved, as a result, with little additional effort, and they didn't seem to notice or get frustrated by the bot's autonomous behaviour while multitasking. However, when the researchers tried increasing the autonomy of the robot when Brainput hadn't indicated that the participant was mentally overloaded, they found that performance decreased. The autonomy only helped when the operator wasn't able to keep up (http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011 04/12/multitaskingbrains) . "Multitasking has become integral in many aspects of our lives, so there are opportunities to explore Brainput in other tasks and domains," said the team in a paper (http://web.mit.edu/erinsol/www/papers/Solovey.CHI.2012.Final.pdf) (.pdf) detailing the project. "In any activity involving multitasking or information overload, we could expect to see improvements in the user's performance and (http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;232546085;34413036;y)

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Home (/) News (/news) Technology (/news/technology) Brainput ()

Google announces ball­shaped Nexus Q mediastreamer(/news/archive/2012­06/27/nexus­q)

(/news/archive/2012-06/27/nexus-q)In California at Google's I/O conference, the

search giant has announced an intriguing ball­

shaped media streaming device, running Android »(/news/archive/2012­06/27/nexus­q)

This rock­paper­scissors robot cheats(/news/archive/2012­06/27/rps­robot)

Human­powered helicopter smashes flight record(/news/archive/2012­06/25/human­powered­helicopter­record)

Technology (/news/technology) Culture (/news/culture) Science (/news/science) Business (/news/business) Gaming (/news/gaming)Ideas Bank (/news/ideas­bank) Geek Dad (/news/geek­dad) Nate Lanxon (/news/nate­lanxons­blog) David Rowan (/news/david­rowans­blog)The Great Transition (/news/the­great­transition)

By Duncan Geere (/search/author/Duncan+Geere) 15 May 12 (Tue, 15 May 2012 13:00:00 +01:00)

Leave a

comment

(#CommentList)

Related features

Brain scans show howmultitasking is harder forseniors(/news/archive/2011­04/12/multitasking­brains)

Exploring the uncannyvalley of how brains reactto humanoids(/news/archive/2011­07/19/uncanny­valley­tested)

KinectBot responds togestural commands(/news/archive/2010­11/19/kinect­hack­3d­mapping)

How Cynthia Breazeal isteaching robots how to behuman(/magazine/archive/2011/04/start/best­friendbots)

MIT's 'Brainput' offloads humanmultitasking to a computer

A team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has

developed an experimental system

(http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/40406/?p1=A1)

that can detect when a human is trying to multitask, and help out.

It's called "Brainput", and is essentially a portable fMRI scanner

combined with software. By measuring and analysing brain activity, the device

detects when you're multitasking and can offload some of that work to a

computer. In a paper, the researchers described how they set up a maze with

two remote­controlled robots (http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012­

04/10/robooctopus) that needed to be both navigated simultaneously ­­

switching back and forth between the two.

When Brainput detected that the driver was multitasking, it was able to detect

one of the robots to use its own sensors to help navigate ­­ making it partially

autonomous. The operator's overall performance improved, as a result, with

little additional effort, and they didn't seem to notice or get frustrated by the

bot's autonomous behaviour while multitasking.

However, when the researchers tried increasing the autonomy of the robot

when Brainput hadn't indicated that the participant was mentally overloaded,

they found that performance decreased. The autonomy only helped when the

operator wasn't able to keep up (http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011­

04/12/multitasking­brains).

"Multitasking has become integral in many aspects of our lives, so there are

opportunities to explore Brainput in other tasks and domains," said the team in

a paper (http://web.mit.edu/erinsol/www/papers/Solovey.CHI.2012.Final.pdf)

(.pdf) detailing the project. "In any activity involving multitasking or information

overload, we could expect to see improvements in the user's performance and

(http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;232546085;34413036;y)

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space) using a balloon ­­ Ho explains how »(/magazine/archive/2012/07/how­to/send­

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Wired Twitter ()

Spotify adds social notifications for playlists:http://t.co/y4G4xdGk (http://t.co/y4G4xdGk)by @britishgaming(http://twitter.com/britishgaming)about 8 minutes ago(http://twitter.com/WiredUK/statuses/218367116561231870)

Spider­Man's 50th birthday present: asidekick: http://t.co/qgeGW99R(http://t.co/qgeGW99R) by @sebpatrick

StoryWritten by Duncan Geere(/search/author/Duncan+Geere)Edited by Nate Lanxon

PhotoMIT

TagsBrains (/tags/Brains),Multitasking(/tags/Multitasking),Robots (/tags/Robots),Brainput(/tags/Brainput), MIT(/tags/MIT), fMRI(/tags/fMRI)

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experience. Some examples of other domains are complex data analytics, air

traffic control and management of multiple unmanned vehicles."

They added that future work could consider other cognitive states where

humans could do with a helping hand from a machine. "An exploration of the

system's ability to distinguish other states could lead to new enhancements at

little to no cost to the operator."

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