If getting away from your laptop or smartphone any other internet-connected device is your last hope for getting lost in the quiet of your own thoughts, a kid at MIT appears poised to mess with that.
Arnav Kapur, a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab, was featured on “60 Minutes” Sunday night, showing off a project called AlterEgo. The device worn on Kapur’s head works when the user internally vocalizes a specific command or question — sort of like silently Googling something in your head. Electrical signals that the brain normally sends to the vocal cords are intercepted and sent to a computer and that information is then communicated to the user’s inner ear via vibrations.
Watch Kapur — looking like a “Rain Man” for the modern age — give the answer to 45,689 divided by 67. And see him name the largest city in Bulgaria and give its population.
Arnav Kapur, a student in MIT’s Media Lab, has developed a system to surf the internet with his mind. He silently Googled our questions and heard the answers through vibrations transmitted through his skull and into his inner ear. pic.twitter.com/aN76Jn4AHv
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) April 22, 2018
Kapur, who has only been working on the project for a year, didn’t stop there. He also wowed the “60 Minutes” crew by ordering a pizza with his thoughts.
OK, wait a minute. I’ve done this so many times in my head I’ve lost count. Sure, the pizza never actually showed up, like it did for Kapur and company, but man I could taste it.
