Using Brain Interfaces to Post Twitter Messages

University of Wisconsin-Madison (UWM) researchers have recently demonstrated a novel way through which people with disabilities can interact with the outside world. Using a device similar in concept with an electroencephalogram (EEG) machine, they have been able to post a Twitter message just by thinking at it. The words “using EEG to send tweet” have demonstrated that the world of computing could soon become open to people with severe physical disabilities, as well as to those who have no other way of communicating with individuals around them.

Adam Wilson, a University of Wisconsin-Madison biomedical engineering doctoral student, explains that the new system consists of an electrode-laden head band. These small sensors detect the brain-wave activity, and translate it into a language that computers can understand. The software itself consists of a virtual keyboard, displayed on a computer screen. Using it may take a long time, but at least it's effective, the UWM researchers say.

“The way this works is that all the letters come up, and each one of them flashes individually. And what your brain does is, if you're looking at the 'R' on the screen and all the other letters are flashing, nothing happens. But when the 'R' flashes, your brain says, 'Hey, wait a minute. Something is different about what I was just paying attention to.' And you see a momentary change in brain activity,” Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering Justin Williams, who has also been Wilson's advisor, explains.

“We started thinking that moving a cursor on a screen is a good scientific exercise. But when we talk to people who have locked-in syndrome or a spinal-cord injury, their No. 1 concern is communication,” he adds. Wilson also says that the interface does take some time to get used to. “You have to press a button four times to get the character you want. So this is kind of a slow process at first,” he reveals.

“So someone could simply tell family and friends how they're feeling today. People at the other end can be following their thread and never know that the person is disabled. That would really be an enabling type of communication means for those people, and I think it would make them feel, in the online world, that they're not that much different from everybody else. That's why we did these things,” Williams shares about the significance of the new device.