One astonishing development in HCI is what is known as a brain-computer interface. Yes it is just as it sounds. It's being able to read the brain to control a computer. As ridicules as it sounds it's actually become a real thing. Being able to interact with the brain will change the way we use computers as we will be able to play games just by using computers, understand thoughts and emotions of people (medical) and just in general it might get to the point where we can think to ourselves 'What have I got to do today' and a computer will show you exactly that.
So how does brain-computer interface exactly work? Well let's talk about a specific device that was created by a company called 'Emotiv' and the headsets they make. These headsets are just like a head band that has sensors on. These sensors use EEG (Electroencephalography) technology. To explain what this is, the brain is made up of many billions of neurons (100 billion to be average). Each of these neurons act as a nerve that carries signals around the brain. Whenever we do something signals are given off can carried around our brain. This is even the case when we think about something. EEG technology is being able to read the levels of electrical signals that our brain is giving off. From this the device can then recognise when more brain signals are being given off at one time compared to another. From this we can then use the different levels in signal to then do different tasks.
So what are the limits of what brain-computer interface can do now? Well at this specific time brain controlling isn't really too advanced. Its isn't able to read your thoughts word by word and you can't simply imagine something and expect it to happen. But what BCI can do is understand the different levels of electronic signals in your brains and then produce an outcome depending on that many signals. A good example is if you want to show a device different emotions. When you were happy and thinking about things that make you happy your brains might give off a lot of signals. This can then be linked to a screen that would display a happy face as that amount of signals being given off can be recognised has being happy. Then if your sad and thinking about things that make you unhappy less signals might be given off by your brains which then we be understood by the device and then show a sad face on the screen. This is a general example of how limited BCI is at this current time.
So how is BCI going to impact the future way of HCI? Well in this present time BCI isn't evolved enough to meet the demands of what users will expect it to do. From my point of view it is extremely interesting that we can get computers to communicate with ours brains but it's so limited in what it can do. But I feel the potential of it is endless. Right now BCI has a massive impact on medical technology. Using the EEG on the BCI's doctors are able to read electric activity in the brain to diagnose many different types of brain related illnesses. This ranges from epilepsy to sleeping disorders to comas. In the future this might have a massive impact because as BCI evolves it might get to a stage where you can input data into the brain which can then think these metal illnesses or the potential of being able to talk to someone in a coma via their brain activity. A good example I found about medical technology of BCI was
For example, researchers could figure out what signals are sent to the brain by the optic nerve when someone sees the color red. They could rig a camera that would send those exact signals into someone's brain whenever the camera saw red, allowing a blind person to "see" without eyes (http://computer.howstuffworks.com/brain-computer-interface.htm).
I thought this was rather a clever way to use this kind of HCI. Whereas you could use it for more than just blind people but you could use it for deaf people too. Not just as medical technology but BCI might get to a stage where you can just think of something and a computer does it for you. So people could think about something they need to remember and have a computer automatically write it down for you or you could think to yourself you want to play a game and then a computer brings up a list of games from you to choose from. This would be taking HCI to the easiest level where users don't even need to do anything but think about how they want to use the computer. These are all astonishing reasons of why BCI is a good thing, however you do get some conflict with this. Right not BCI is currently unable to actually read the thoughts of a user. But if it develops to a stage like I just describe are users going to be happy running the risk that a computer can read their thoughts? And just who might and how easy is it to get a hold of the data of your thoughts.
Then finally, how can BCI affect the economy? Well if HCI does become more developed and allows you to do more with the control you have, it might allow people with disabilities to be just as productive as everyone else. For example if BCI allows colour blind to see again or deaf people to hear again it opens up many more job opportunities for them or even allows them to do their current job more efficiently due to have their senses back allowing for better communication. You would be allowing people who aren't able to work, to work. It would be bringing thousands of people into the economy. From these thousands of people you never know what outcome they might have on the economy. There is always the possibility they might create a world wide business themselves. However not everything might be as simple as this. The devices are going to obviously cost a lot. If someone needs BCI to do their job and then the headset breaks, will the company have to pay for a new one? Or will they lose a staff member? Companies might neglect to hire people who need to use BCI as they need specific requirements to be able to work.
Bibliography:
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/brain-computer-interface.htm
http://www.alsa.org/als-care/resources/publications-videos/factsheets/brain-computer-interface.html?referrer=https://www.google.co.uk/
https://emotiv.com/store/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroencephalography
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