Call it an innovation or hacking, Google Glass can be controlled with not just winks and similar discrete gestures, but also brainwaves.
The Shoreditch-based firm This Place has released an app dubbed MindRDR that connects Glass with a NeuroSky electroencephalogram (EEG) biosensor, to read the brainwave activity and allow the users to control the wearable using the power of thought.
MindRDR app, which can be used in high-pressure hands-free situations, acts as a go-between for the Google glass and the biosensor headset and the current version is limited to clicking photos and uploading it to social networking sites. This Place has released the source code on GitHub for free, for developers to further investigate and develop it.
Dusan Hamlin, chief executive of This Place said that the aim is to realise the “true potential of Glass” by giving users the ability to control the wearable with their minds. He added that users with disabilities and other users for social situations are restricted from touching the Glass or using voice commands, leaving them unable to use the device.
Creative Director Chloe Kirton at This Place said that the current capabilities of the MindRDR app are limited to taking and sharing a picture across social networking sites, but the Google Glass ‘telekinesis’ possibilities are really vast.
He said that MindRDR in future could give users with conditions like severe multiple sclerosis, quadriplegia, or locked-in syndrome, an opportunity to connect with the world with Google Glass.
However, Google has made it clear that it does not officially support the MindRDR app.
A spokeswoman for Google said that Google Glass can’t read users’ mind and this MindRDR app is working through a separate piece attached to the Glass. She added that the company has not yet reviewed it nor approved the MindRDR app and it will not be available in the Glass app store.
The spokeswoman continued that the company is always interested in learning about the news applications of Glass and that they have already seen great research in a variety of medical fields from surgery to Parkinson’s.
