Cognitive Design

Two miltary contracts worth $11M have been awarded to develop binoculars that work directly with the brainwaves of soliders. The idea is that the brain often “sees” things before the mind can recognize them and objects “far a field” might not be recognized as threats in time.  

The goal, as reported by MSNBC is:

“Electrodes on the scalp inside a helmet will record the user’s brain activity as it processes information about high-resolution images produced by wide-angle military binoculars. Those responses will train the binoculars over time to recognize threats.”

 Imagine a high-reliability, non-invasive technology that can recognize your thoughts in real time. So, if you are thinking about “celery” or an “elephant” the technology could recognize that and use the information to drive any number of applications.

Exciting progress towards this functionality is reported in a post, Decoding Brain Activity, on the Brain Stimulant blog.  Although very much in the R&D phase, the scope of thoughts that can be recognized and the  reliability levels reported are very impressive.

In cognitive design the classic distinction between thought and action is thrown out the window.   The idea of separating thinking from doing (something we still do as designers and managers) is dangerously dated.  Thought and action are intertwined in the matrix of experience. This is why in cognitive design we include requirements for achieving a specific frame of mind in the user (mentality) as part of the functional specifications of the artifact – thought, emotion and action as an integrated whole.

Some support for the idea that thought and action might not be as different as we assume was recently demonstrated in a musical performance in New York City.   As reported by the New Scientist, (registration is required) performers played their music by thinking about doing it.

“It demonstrated Sulzer’s idea that thinking about an action could stimulate the brain in much the same way as actually carrying it out.”

So our brains themselves might not make much of a distinction between thinking a thing and doing a thing.  

Is the Ad a Success? The Brain Waves Tell All is another recent article in the New York Times highlighting the role of EEG measurement techniques in neuromarketing.

“Instead of hypotheses about what people think and feel, you actually see what they think and feel”

Of course, there is nothing stopping us from using this technology in the design phase of product development rather than to test the effectiveness of potential ads.   

The article mentions a firm, NeuroFocus, we have not discussed in this blog before and points out there are many presentations at the upcoming 54th annual convention of the Advertising Research Foundation that cover the use of neuroscience to drive the effectiveness of ads.

  Affordable, reliable and perhaps even sexy heads sets that read your brain waves and algorithms that translate them into signals that control computers, games and other devices.

When

 As mentioned in previous posts, hopefully yet this year. NeuroSky has released technology to its OEMs and has announced deals with Sega and others. Check out their latest gear and application ideas here.

Emotiv Systems released this picture of their headset:

 This headset has 16 sensors (medical grade gear has 120) and the NeuroSky’s system amazingly has only has one. They are targeting December of 2008 with a retail price of $299.

Other firms with products in the pipeline include EmSense, and Hitachi.  There is additional action outside the US. Check out the headset on the g.tech BCI research platform that won the European ICT prize in 2007:

The system (shown below) has been billed at the first commercially available brain-computer interface and has receive a good deal of buzz. Although not a mass market “consumer friendly” system (more of a research platform) it has been used to update the classic game of pong:

EEG Technology for “reading out” the mental states (thoughts and feelings) of users as they react to the design of a message, video game or other artifact is becoming more accessible.  Earlier we highlighted the work of Emotive systems in this area. Check out EmSense a neuromarketing company with 22 patents pending .  A good overview of their approach including pictures of the technology can be found at VentureBeat.

Let’s hope.

Low cost, wearable, reliable and real-time brain machine interfaces will trigger a revolution in cognitive design.  We will be able to remake products that directly interact with the brain and fundamentally change how we learn and develop by externalizing and manipulating hidden mental states. And other very exciting stuff.

How close are we? Check out the Emotiv Systems demo at the IBM partner booth at the recent Consumer Electronics Show. Emotiv’s Chief Product Officer says they will be released in 2008.

 If you want to see something a bit cooler, check out this earlier video on playing video games with your mind.

 Augment cognition (AC) is another rapidly emerging field that is a close cousin of cognitive design. Like NeuroErgonomics it is focused on creating artifacts that integrate with human cognition to amplify or accelerate it (5th level of cognitive design). More specifically,  the goal of AC is to develop closed-loop human computer systems that increase cognitive capabilities by an order of magnitude.

There have been four international conferences held on the topic and an International Society has been formed so the field has traction. So far no killer app.

DARPA has a strong interest in AC has has even prepared a video on the future of augmented cognition. Must warn you it is a bit long but they are trying to breath some realism and design detail into the scenario.

We will track AC closely in this blog.

This report outlines the major technologies, trends and opportunities in US, Europe and Asia.

Lots of R&D globally, some commercialization and a smattering of start-ups.   

Here is the link