I've come across a number of news items that have been making the rounds recently. All of these products have the potential to add a new way for people to interact with their electronics or computers.

First up is a device developed by a Japanese company that lets you control your iPod by winking via a device you put on your temple, one eye toggles play and pause while the other advances the track. A second more complex device hopes to silence public conversations by cell phone users with a collar that can read the nerves in your neck. The device apparently reads the nerves leading to your vocal chords and detects what words you're thinking of saying. The article states that the device currently works about as well as early speech recognition and can detect about 150 words. Although this product is in a fairly early stage, it looks to have some promising applications. The designers eventually hope to rework the software to detect phonemes instead of words in the final version of the software.

Even more impressive than the thought to computerized speech is a headset that reads brainwave patterns and relays them to a computer as a control mechanism.

Prototypes for this device billed as a game controller have been kicking around at video game conferences and the like for a year or two but it appears that Emotiv's stated release date of late 2008 is in earnest. The company describes the device on their website here: "At Emotiv, we've created a robust system and methodology for detecting and classifying both human conscious thoughts and non-conscious emotions. This revolutionary patent pending neural processing technology makes it possible for computers to interact directly with the human brain. By the detection of thoughts and feelings, our technology now makes it possible for applications to be controlled and influenced by the user's mind."

If that doesn't sound like SF I'm not sure what does. But, I'm reluctantly tempering my excitement with skepticism. If this technology matures it could also be a great asset to people with a variety of physical handicaps. I've yet to come across a long or convincing demo of the Epoc, but any product that purports to allow me to control a computer with my mind is just fine in my book. The rumored price point of 300 dollars doesn't seem too steep for something so novel. I'm looking forward to the day when I can check my email or answer the phone just by thinking about it.