(http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;232546085;34413036;y) Technology (/news/technology) Culture (/news/culture) Science (/news/science) Business (/news/business) Gaming (/news/gaming) Ideas Bank (/news/ideas­bank) Geek Dad (/news/geek­dad) Nate Lanxon (/news/nate­lanxons­blog) David Rowan (/news/david­rowans­blog) HomTeh (e/ )GreaNte wTsra (n/nseiwtios)n (/nTeewchsn/tohloeg­yg r(e/naetw­tsr/atnecshitniolno)gy) Brainput () MIT's 'Brainput' offloads human multitasking to a computer By Duncan Geere (/search/author/Duncan+Geere) 15 May 12 (Tue, 15 May 2012 13:00:00 +01:00) Related features A team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has developed an experimental system Brain scans show how multitasking is harder for Leave a (http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/40406/?p1=A1) seniors comment that can detect when a human is trying to multitask, and help out. (/news/archive/2011­ (#CommentList) 04/12/multitasking­brains) It's called "Brainput", and is essentially a portable fMRI scanner Google announces ball­ Exploring the uncanny combined with software. By measuring and analysing brain activity, the device valley of how brains react shaped Nexus Q media to humanoids detects when you're multitasking and can offload some of that work to a streamer (/news/archive/2011­ computer. In a paper, the researchers described how they set up a maze with 07/19/uncanny­valley­ (/news/archive/2012­ two remote­controlled robots (http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012­ tested) 06/27/nexus­q) 04/10/robooctopus) that needed to be both navigated simultaneously ­­ KinectBot responds to switching back and forth between the two. gestural commands (/news/archive/2010­ 11/19/kinect­hack­3d­ When Brainput detected that the driver was multitasking, it was able to detect mapping) one of the robots to use its own sensors to help navigate ­­ making it partially How Cynthia Breazeal is autonomous. The operator's overall performance improved, as a result, with teaching robots how to be little additional effort, and they didn't seem to notice or get frustrated by the human (/magazine/archive/2011/04/sbtoatr'ts/ baeustot­nomous behaviour while multitasking. friendbots) However, when the researchers tried increasing the autonomy of the robot when Brainput hadn't indicated that the participant was mentally overloaded, (/news/archive/2012-06/27/nexus-q) they found that performance decreased. The autonomy only helped when the In California at Google's I/O conference, the operator wasn't able to keep up (http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011­ search giant has announced an intriguing ball­ 04/12/multitasking­brains). shaped media streaming device, running Android » (/news/archive/2012­06/27/nexus­q) "Multitasking has become integral in many aspects of our lives, so there are opportunities to explore Brainput in other tasks and domains," said the team in This rock­paper­scissors robot cheats a paper (http://web.mit.edu/erinsol/www/papers/Solovey.CHI.2012.Final.pdf) (/news/archive/2012­06/27/rps­robot) (.pdf) detailing the project. "In any activity involving multitasking or information Human­powered helicopter smashes flight record overload, we could expect to see improvements in the user's performance and (/news/archive/2012­06/25/human­powered­ helicopter­record) experience. Some examples of other domains are complex data analytics, air Nokia's 41­megapixel PureView cameraphone traffic control and management of multiple unmanned vehicles." shunned by UK networks (/news/archive/2012­ 06/27/pureview­network­support) They added that future work could consider other cognitive states where A Twitter bot so convincing that people humans could do with a helping hand from a machine. "An exploration of the sympathise with "her" (/news/archive/2012­ system's ability to distinguish other states could lead to new enhancements at 06/26/twitter­bot­people­like) little to no cost to the operator." Facebook just changed your email address (/news/archive/2012­06/26/facebook­email­change) Story Photo Tags Tweet 35 Google's Build with Chrome lets you recreate the Written by Duncan Geere MIT Brains (/tags/Brains), world in Lego (/news/archive/2012­06/26/build­with­ (/search/author/Duncan+Geere) Multitasking chrome­lego) Like 16 Edited by Nate Lanxon (/tags/Multitasking), In pictures: Hyper­real pencil drawings that look Robots (/tags/Robots), like photos (/news/archive/2012­03/30/best­ Brainput 4 drawing) (/tags/Brainput), MIT (/tags/MIT), fMRI reddit (/tags/fMRI) More News » (http://www.wired.co.uk/news) Comments How to send balloons into space Name Email (/magazine/archive/2012/07/how­ to/send­balloons­into­ space) Comment 28 June 2012 (javascript:Recaptcha.reload();) Type the two words: (/magazine/archive/2012/07/how-to/send-balloons- (javascript:Recaptcha.switch_type('audio');) into-space) (http://www.google.com/recaptcha/help?c=03AHJ_Vus3kxeHDok02dK1WLFpnFUN-V9eAd8- Canadian teenagers Asad Muhammad and Mathew V1ZmItPPvVmr_lTEgoaStCrnPVHBvzbAvK-RzbGwAZXy- Ho sent a Lego minifig 24,384 metres up (near­ rJ8pbmE2h9R5A1rTDhvvImYReuAIojsJmOuDXCwNTxVbv8lUxZcDdDCiQ2KaAwg7cK9ialL4lMPyldkog&hl=en- US) space) using a balloon ­­ Ho explains how » (/magazine/archive/2012/07/how­to/send­ Submit » (javascript:WebForm_DoPostBackWithOptions(new balloons­into­space) WebForm_PostBackOptions("ctl00$ctl00$ctl00$MainContent$MainContent$ctl01$CommentPost", "", true, "CommentValidation", "", false, true))) Designer develops cocktail dress that actually makes cocktails (/magazine/archive/2012/07/play/cocktail­dress) Tested: High­tech fishing tackle for the forward­ More from Wired.co.uk thinking angler (/magazine/archive/2012/07/fetish/fishing­for­the­ future) How to master rock­paper­scissors (/magazine/archive/2012/07/how­to/master­rock­ paper­scissors) Winning by numbers: how performance analysis is transforming sport (/magazine/archive/2012/07/features/winning­by­ numbers) (/nT eEwCsH/aNrcOhiLveO/2G0Y12-06/26/twitter- (/mM aAgGazAinZ eI /NarEchive/2011/04/features/(h/nToewEw-CsH/aNrcOhiLveO/2G0Y12-05/24/the- bo( t/-pNeEoWpleS-l/ikTeE) C H N O L O G Y ) ro(v/ioM-mA aGdAe-ZaInNgrEy-)birds-a-winner) pr(o/xNy-EbWayS) / T E C H N O L O G Y ) Magazine » (/magazine) A Twitter bot so In depth: How Rovio Pirate Bay launches convincing that made Angry Birds a proxy­friendly mirror people sympathise winner (and what's to circumvent UK ban with "her" next) (/news/archive/2012­ Wired Twitter () (/news/archive/2012­ (/magazine/archive/2011/04/fe0a5t/u2r4e/st/hheo­wpr­oxy­bay) 06/26/twitter­bot­ rovio­made­angry­ Spotify adds social notifications for playlists: people­like) birds­a­winner) http://t.co/y4G4xdGk (http://t.co/y4G4xdGk) by @britishgaming (http://twitter.com/britishgaming) about 8 minutes ago (http://twitter.com/WiredUK/statuses/218367116561231870) Spider­Man's 50th birthday present: a sidekick: http://t.co/qgeGW99R (http://t.co/qgeGW99R) by @sebpatrick (http://twitter.com/sebpatrick) about 29 minutes ago (http://twitter.com/WiredUK/statuses/218362004992311300) Fail Tale: Co­founder of Sledge Tom Griffin on macroeconomic setbacks http://t.co/kv7sGehe (http://t.co/kv7sGehe) about 41 minutes ago (http://twitter.com/WiredUK/statuses/218358990822850560) Become a fan Follow Wired on Facebook on Twitter (http://facebook.com/(whtitrpe:d/u/ktw) itter.com/wireduk) Promotions Conquer Greymail (http://adclick.g.doubleclick.net/aclk%253Fsa%253DL%2526ai%253DBTesz8HvsT_eQEvC­ 6gGCwqT1CLXuiuoCAAAAEAEgADgAWMXv8PQtYMne7YiEpOwPggEXY2EtcHViLTQwNjgwNjgwMTg2ODc3MDayAQ93d3cud2lyZWQuY28udWu6AQlnZnBfaW1hZ2XIAQnaATdodHRwOi8vd3d3LndpcmVkLmNvLnVrL25ld3MvYXJjaGl2ZS8yMDEyLTA1LzE1L2JyYWlucHV0wAIC4AIA6gIYNTU3NC91ay5uNTU3NC53aXJlZC9uZXdz­ AKB0h6QA­ ADmAOMBqgDAdAEkE7gBAGgBiA%2526num%253D0%2526sig%253DAOD64_2io5fnXY9IVns89vDOoxIto5NnYA%2526client%253Dca­ pub­ 4068068018687706%2526adurl%253Dhttp://www.wired.co.uk/promotions/conquergreymail) You may not have heard of (http://adclick.g.doubleclick.net/aclk%253Fsa%253DL%2526ai%253DBTesz8HvsT_eQEvC- 6gGCwqT1CLXuiuoCAAgrAeyAmEaAilE bguAt DyoguA WareMXv8PQtYMne7YiEpOwPggEXY2EtcHViLTQwNjgwNjgwMTg2ODc3MDayAQ93d3cud2lyZWQuY28udWu6AQlnZnBfaW1hZ2XIAQnaATdodHRwOi8vd3d3LndpcmVkLmNvLnVrL25ld3MvYXJjaGl2ZS8yMDEyLTA1LzE1L2JyYWlucHV0wAIC4AIA6gIYNTU3NC91ay5uNTU3NC53aXJlZC9uZXdz- AKB0h6QA-ADmAOMBguqagrDanAtdeAedE tkoE b7eg BwAasGtignBg iA%2526num%253D0%2526sig%253DAOD64_2io5fnXY9IVns89vDOoxIto5NnYA%2526client%253Dca-pub-4068068018687706%2526adurl%253Dhttp://www.wired.co.uk/promotions/conquergreymail) time and energy dealing with it. Find out how to conquer it with Hotmail. (http://adclick.g.doubleclick.net/aclk%253Fsa%253DL%2526ai%253DBTesz8HvsT_eQEvC­ 6gGCwqT1CLXuiuoCAAAAEAEgADgAWMXv8PQtYMne7YiEpOwPggEXY2EtcHViLTQwNjgwNjgwMTg2ODc3MDayAQ93d3cud2lyZWQuY28udWu6AQlnZnBfaW1hZ2XIAQnaATdodHRwOi8vd3d3LndpcmVkLmNvLnVrL25ld3MvYXJjaGl2ZS8yMDEyLTA1LzE1L2JyYWlucHV0wAIC4AIA6gIYNTU3NC91ay5uNTU3NC53aXJlZC9uZXdz­ AKB0h6QA­ ADmAOMBqgDAdAEkE7gBAGgBiA%2526num%253D0%2526sig%253DAOD64_2io5fnXY9IVns89vDOoxIto5NnYA%2526client%253Dca­ pub­ 4068068018687706%2526adurl%253Dhttp://www.wired.co.uk/promotions/conquergreymail) Read more (http://adclick.g.doubleclick.net/aclk%253Fsa%253DL%2526ai%253DBTesz8HvsT_eQEvC­ 6gGCwqT1CLXuiuoCAAAAEAEgADgAWMXv8PQtYMne7YiEpOwPggEXY2EtcHViLTQwNjgwNjgwMTg2ODc3MDayAQ93d3cud2lyZWQuY28udWu6AQlnZnBfaW1hZ2XIAQnaATdodHRwOi8vd3d3LndpcmVkLmNvLnVrL25ld3MvYXJjaGl2ZS8yMDEyLTA1LzE1L2JyYWlucHV0wAIC4AIA6gIYNTU3NC91ay5uNTU3NC53aXJlZC9uZXdz­ AKB0h6QA­ ADmAOMBqgDAdAEkE7gBAGgBiA%2526num%253D0%2526sig%253DAOD64_2io5fnXY9IVns89vDOoxIto5NnYA%2526client%253Dca­ pub­ 4068068018687706%2526adurl%253Dhttp://www.wired.co.uk/promotions/conquergreymail)