'Mind-reading device' tried on Stephen Hawking
From online dispatches
AFP photo
A team of California scientists has tested a new portable brain scanner that may soon be able to "read a person's mind” on famed scientist Dr. Stephen Hawking.The device, developed by San Diego-based NeuroVigil, has been dubbed "iBrain" and allowed researchers to "have a window into the brain," project's leader Dr. Phillip Low said, as reported by Eric Pfeiffer of Yahoo News.
The iBrain fits over a person's head and measures unique neurological patters connected to specific thought processes, Low said. Hawking has already tried out the iBrain.
"We'd like to find a way to bypass his body, pretty much hack his brain," Low was quoted as saying. Low traveled to Cambridge, United Kingdom, in 2011 and met Hawking, who was asked to think "very hard" about completing various tasks while wearing the device.
The device has potential medical applications, such as using a person's brainwave responses to help doctors to prescribe correct levels of medication.
