Just last week we reported on how a group of hackers supposedly figured out a way to control the Siri function on the iPhone 4S by using their brainwaves. It was the stuff out of science fiction, and to be honest giving the pace that we are advancing in terms of technology, it wasn’t really a stretch of the imagination to picture that something like this could be possible “one day”. Unfortunately it turns out the Project Black Mirror might be nothing more than an elaborate hoax according to many scientists familiar with such technology.One voice in particular stood out and it belonged to the COO of InteraXon, a thought-controlled computing company. For starters there were some glaring mistakes, such as the use of ECG pads, which are apparently used to monitor heart activity, while EEG pads are used for brain activity, all in theory ECG pads could be used to launch some VERY basic commands. Trevor Coleman, COO of InteraXon, also mentioned that the recording thought commands such as “Call” or “John” are at least 15 years away from actually happening.
Another company that works on brain-computer interfaces, Emotiv, offers a product that is similar to what Project Black Mirror claims to do, but in their case it takes 14 EEG pads to accomplish their task, and is reportedly nowhere near the level of control Project Black Mirror claims to be at.
Since we’re hardly experts when it comes to EGG, it’s hard to say who’s right and who’s wrong, but it’s difficult to ignore the mounting criticism and skepticism that Project Black Mirror is currently facing. The guys at Project Black Mirror have yet to release an official statement about this matter, although their latest blog post seems to indicate that they are close to landing an investment, but we’ll definitely keep our eyes peeled for this one.
Publisher‘s note: in my view, the best case scenario is that a working solution like Emotiv’s would be able to issue simple commands (launch app, find nearby restaurants), but I highly doubt that it could pick up phrases or process even slightly elaborate commands. We talked about this on G+ back then.
Filed in . Read more about Apple Inc, Hacking, iPhone 4S and Siri.