“A thought-based interface is the ability to engage with technology, interface with it, not using your fingers to type, not using your voice to speak, but simply using your mind to think.”
Last month, Afshin Mehin, our founder and lead designer, sat down with the hosts of the Liftoff by Bottle Rocket podcast to have a colorful conversation about the future of Thought-Based Interfaces. The conversation went in a lot of interesting directions asking questions like: what would thought-based interfaces be good for? What are thoughts exactly anyways? How will we interact with thought-based interfaces? And what are the ethical Implications of thought-based interfaces? The full podcast is available to listen here, otherwise you can read the condensed version of our conversation below.
As a studio we’ve always been interested in new technologies that can change the way that we live our lives. We worked with Neuralink for the last couple of years to carry out the industrial design for the Neuralink wearable implantable device as well as the outer enclosure of their surgical robot. After completing the work for Neuralink, the Card79 team took it upon themselves to start to ask themselves what the User Experience of a Brain Computer Interface could feel like and what it would be good for.
Brain computer interfaces have been around for a while and there is presently a huge push within the scientific neuroscience and neurotech community to better understand how to create interfaces for people with limited physical capabilities who can use BCI’s to improve their daily lives. During these developments, these scientists and engineers are digging deeper into how the brain works and trying to create a holistic understanding of how the brain works.
The Liftoff Podcast conversation looks at this from a designers perspective asking how this technology could impact people’s lives in both positive and negative ways and what the user experience might look like for both people using this technology as an assistive technology as well as broader applications that could also apply to non-disabled people.
Have a listen!
For more information about Liftoff: https://hubs.li/H0Bq3T40