In a flat in Melbourne, Australia, Charlie* can clearly see her housemate Robbie’s* emotions. It isn’t Robbie’s facial expressions or movements helping Charlie understand – his face is obscured by augmented-reality goggles – instead, swarms of colourful patterns swirl around Robbie, moving with him, changing in colour and shape. Charlie can see the swarms through her own augmented-reality set: they’re both using Neo-Noumena, a brain-sensing software.
Brain-machine interfaces have recently been employed as assistive devices, restoring mobility and communication to people suffering from various forms of paralysis. They’ve allowed people to control robotic limbs, wheelchairs, and computer keyboards, all with the power of thought.
But newer generations of brain-computer interfaces are taking advantage of artificial intelligence’s pattern recognition to decode more complex information from the brain, such as emotion.
