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Brain-computer interface (BCI) is a recurring science fiction topic; According to Naki, it’s now ready for everyday use: A pair of earplugs should enable computer control without hands or speech. c’t 3003 tried it at CES.
Video transcript
(Note: This transcript is for those who cannot or do not wish to watch the video above. The text does not reflect all of the information on the image track.)
Look here, I’m just turning a lamp on and off without using my hands or my voice. By whispering this into my ear. Once you’ve trained a little, you can use it to operate a computer completely, as Dave Segal demonstrates here. He founded Naqi, and that’s the company that developed this ear thing. Famous ink magazine It was written in an article that these Neuralink earplugs can be dangerous. And these are the ones with implanted brain interfaces.
So is Naqi also a brain interface? So the holy grail of technology operations? We will explain it in this video and definitely give it a try. Stay tuned!
Dear hackers, dear internet surfers, welcome here…
Yes, brain interface. For me as an old cyberpunker, this topic is quintessential, at least since I shadowism played and neuromancer Have read. This is also obvious: the most direct connection between man and machine occurs when brain and technology communicate with each other directly, without useless things like user interfaces, terminals or voice commands.
And of course, at the end of this development there is direct stimulation of the brain in some way. Then you won’t need a display or a VR headset, instead you can directly access, feel and see the desired experience. Yeah, well, we’re not there yet, and I probably won’t even live to see it. But the other direction, i.e. brain to computer, is less spectacular, but it is indeed possible.
For example, this is Noland Arbaugh. He is paralyzed and has a Neuralink brain implant in his head. This allows him to control the mouse cursor on the screen and play chess, for example, as in this video. But well, it’s invasive, it actually involves an experimental implant in the head with all the associated risks. We don’t even need to talk about the fact that this is not a mass produced product.
But the Knicki is just a smaller in-ear headset and can do exactly the same thing. Well, at least nookie inventor Dave Segal can do that. We have definitely seen him operate this computer without using his hands. And then at some point I was allowed to leave.
tried nookie plug
I was extremely excited because I hadn’t really done anything with my brain before. But then there was a little disappointment. For example, it turned out that it was not my brain that operated the lamps here, but the muscles of my face. More specifically, the electrical impulses that my muscles generate when I use them.
So, for example, to turn on the lamp, I have to tense my chewing muscles for a while and then relax them again. In fact, I managed to do it only by biting my teeth. But people told me that you can train it and at some point you will be able to do it even without teeth.
Here in this demo, I moved the cursor left and right by moving my pupils in the same direction for a fraction of a second. Because undoubtedly the muscles are tense and relaxed. I found it fascinating that when my eyes make such small movements, they release an electrical impulse that can be measured in the ear.
Yes, and that’s how I controlled this demo here, which is visible not only on the screen, but also on the AR glasses here. It’s not really pointless, because you can switch these terminal block instructions back and forth and then both hands are free to create what you see there. However, since I already had the glasses and didn’t want to put AR glasses on top of them and risk scratching the bottom of my glasses, I didn’t use them and watched them on the screen.
*Live Status in Demo*
So, I am now on the Mario button and will now switch to the Pokemon button through the Star Wars button. I can solve the puzzle here now. I can now also move this slider to the right. I just have to click here first. But look how fast I become. I think it’s really just a question of getting used to it. I really think you get faster when you practice.
*Live Status Ended*
So: Pupil to the left – the cursor moves to the left. Right Pupil – Cursor to the right. To tighten your chewing muscles one basically had to left click once, right click twice, and use the escape key three times. It didn’t take me even a minute to be able to use it. But there were only five different states. That was still relatively simple.
I would really like to use the entire mouse, as Dave Segal showed us. But they said it would require a lot of practice and that’s why it wasn’t part of the demo I got.
In any case, Naki explained to me that the mouse controls work through subtle head movements. So using a standard gyroscope, that’s a bit unnatural, to be honest.
my conclusion
Clearly, Knicki is not vaporware – not just hot air. The technique really works. I have tried it. But the question is, does it also work if you don’t really focus on it, but try to use it on the side? For example, we were told the vision of being able to operate different devices seamlessly. So you basically watch TV and then switch to the monitor to operate something there, and then back to your cell phone. It feels good at first. But I believe that this requires relatively strong mental stress.
Yes, and what about transportation, for example? If it wobbles a bit, can the system still evaluate microgestures reliably? And yes, Naki is not a classic brain-computer interface (BCI), rather I would describe it as an alternative input device that works with a gyroscope and electromyography – i.e. measuring electrical activity in the muscles.
Classic non-invasive brain-computer interfaces, i.e. those that are not installed in the head, work with EEG. This means that they directly measure the electrical activity caused by neurons in the brain. Such tools have been around for a long time, for example products from Emotive, Muse or Neurocity.
Although of course it’s perfectly fine with Emotive Epoch X Having a device worth about 1000 euros with which you can record and experiment with 14-channel EEG – all this, I would say, is not a suitable brain input device for everyday use. It goes exactly like this: How reliably can you read different commands from this EEG data? And it is difficult to install such equipment.
If now you say, “I have seen videos of people like this Emotive Epoch X controlling a computer or playing games” – yes, but if you look closely, in most cases it is only a measurement of electrical currents caused by muscle tension. Emotiv also writes this in the document. 14 EEG Sensors Eight of them are arranged so that they can also receive signals from facial muscles and eyes – just like Nucky does.
Again: the Naqi technology does what it promises and certainly comes in a more practical form than previous BCI headsets – just like earplugs. The question is who needs it? Who wants that? Naqi could be life-changing for paralyzed people, although many other approaches already exist, such as mouth controllers.
According to Naki, it is aimed at everyone anyway as the creators admit that the Naki interface is at the end of development. The website says, somewhat pompously, “Our vision is to become the universal standard for controlling devices.”
Yes, I’m curious to see when neural earplugs will actually hit the market and how expensive they will be. I would definitely like to try them.
How do you see it? Would you use something like this? Would you like something like this? Feel free to write in the comments and definitely subscribe. goodbye!
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3003 no This is not a YouTube channel. The videos on C’T 3003 are independent content and are independent of the C’T magazine articles. Editors Jan-Keno Janssen and Lucas Rumpler as well as video producers Sahin Erengil and Pascal Cheve publish a video every week.
(JKJ)
