Name: Watch Fortune's Alan Murray Demo a Mind Control Device
Uploaded: 2016-07-12
Duration: 8 min 35 s
Description: With the help of Emotiv CEO Tan Le

[ MUSIC ] Next up we have a really interesting product demonstration. Tan Le, and Tan, if you could come out? She is the CEO of EMOTIV which is working on the challenge of bioinformatics. And connecting that to the physical world, and she has a great product here that we're gonna demonstrate so please welcome Pan to the stage. [ APPLAUSE ] Thank you. Yeah let's stand here, because the rest of it was too confusing for me. Okay. [ LAUGH ] Talk a little bit about EMOTIV. Like what is a Motive and what are you trying to accomplish? So a Motive is seeking to gain a better understanding of the human brain. The human brain is the most complex system in the known universe. It defines our perceptions and experience of the world, and yet it's still a very vulnerable system. So we can, with advances in medical science, we can replace almost every organ in our body. But we can't replace our brains, at least not yet. And even if we could, it's unclear if we'd still be the same person afterwards, and so if we're going to extend human life Over the next few decades, we really need to have better technologies in order to understand our brain, and so what we are seeking to do is to democratize access for anyone to be able to measure, observe their brain and track their brain over long periods of time. And why do people wanna do this? It's important because today typical sights paradigm is we study brains when there's something wrong with it, if you have a sleep disorder, if you have epileptic seizures, if you have traumatic brain injury that's when you actually have your brain scans but when you're healthy, normal abled body person you actually don't Look at your brain at all. And yet one in every three people will have some sort of brain related illness. And so that's a staggering number. That's 2, 000, 000, 000 people worldwide. And so it's something that we have to really start thinking about. And there are different modalities for observing the brain. We use Electroencephalography, which is EEG, and that looks at real- time electrical fluctuations that result from neurons just firing inside your brain. Is there a business model behind what you're doing? Yes, so we sell hardware, we license software and we also have, we're collecting data about the brain over time, so everybody that is a part of our community Over time they could be doing scientific research, taking stuff that you would do in the hospitals, clinics into the real world. As well as presumers today that are looking to seek a better performance or to better understand their stress, manage their emotions Improve their focus. They're all learning about their brain and we're collecting aggregated brain data in order to build better understanding of how the brain adapts and change over time. Okay, let's do this demonstration and this I should say is the most high pressured task that the co- chairs of this conference have ever given me because- So you put that on. That's the insight. Okay. This goes behind my ear? Goes behind your ear. Is this right? Yeah. Just let me put this on. You gonna make me wear this for a long time? No. I think just for a few minutes What we are going to do, and obviously we had Bob Iger yesterday, and I am someone who absolutely loves Star Wars. You're going to have a chance of trying to be Luke for a few moments. [ LAUGH ] I've always wanted to be Luke, great. We're just going to pair up. [ INAUDIBLE ] first. So this is what you're going to try and- I'm gonna make that move. You're gonna try and make this move. Okay. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] We're just gonna pair this [ INAUDIBLE ] And so what's happening up here right now? Let's put this on the floor. So we're just picking up electrical activity from your brain right now. And I'll launch, this app. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] So, [ INAUDIBLE ] is connected. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] No pressure. The pressure is intense. Pressure is intense of course. If I fail at this one, [ LAUGH ] Okay, so you are connected and sphere is connected, so the first thing we're are going to do, if we can switch to the training mode, so everyone can see what is on my iPad. Okay so essentially the first step is just you Being neutral. Be calm. Just be calm and relaxed. We're just observing- Can you guys sing to me? Just to let me- [ LAUGH ] A natural state. And this is so that the machine learning algorithms can get a sense of what Alan's brain looks like when he's just hanging out. So we accept that training. The next thing that we're going to do is we're going to imagine. What you're going to do is visualize the ball rolling forward. Okay, tell me wh- So, we're trying to train that now. You see that progress bar scroll across. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Okay. We'll accept that. Okay [ NOISE ] Wow! nice. We can try it again. Can you try again? Absolutely. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Come on. And he's only has one training segment. So, we can always provide the machine learning algorithms. We repeat more data. On what that looks like. So this, maybe I'll remove the ball to go that way. Okay. That's better. Good job. Come on ball. [ LAUGH ] I got that far, do I have to keep going? You can if you'd like. Nice. Good Very nice, and I can So what just happened there? So what happens is we pick up the electrical fluctuations from your brain. We interpret what that means through machine learning, and every time you think the same set of patterns the ball will move. So as you think forward and the brain patterns match up with the way that you commanded the ball the first time It will start to trigger the command. Come on. [ LAUGH ] Pretty simple. And so where can we take- I think it wants to take off. Stop. Where can we take this? [ LAUGH ] So there are obviously many different types of- I mean, this is great fun, but I- It's a lot of fun, but there are- I don't know if this is the next Pokemon Go. We're not gonna have people rolling balls out on the sidewalk. But This is just one very simple application of the technology in an entertainment sense and now it's gonna roll into the audience. But beyond obviously there are some life changing applications such as being able to allow people to control an electric wheelchair for rehabilitation. We use it in neurofeedback therapy for ADD and ADHD So there's a lot of application areas for this sort of technology. The key is to be able to measure the brain and unlock its potential. Yeah? We have time for a few questions. Does anybody want to ask Tan a question about this technology? Anybody else wanna get up here and try out their brainwaves? Right here. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] How many states can you track with this? So you have like five or six there, but how many can you do like reliably, repeatedly? So, we track emotional states, [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Engagement, arousal which is a psychological arousal, excitement Or veilance which is positive or negative affects so you can plot those sorts of emotions across that curve. We also track facial expressions and then in terms of mental commands, its really unlimited, it's limitless, so you can imagine disappear and then in a virtual environment You can make something disappear, you can create fire for example. It's not really limited to specific movement base command it is base on what you can visualize in your mind. And then you can tie that to whatever it controls you want to tie that to. [ MUSIC ]