Not now, I鈥檓 thinking (Image: Stephen Simpson/Rex Shutterstock)
鈥淪ORRY I missed your call. My brain said I was busy.鈥�
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A new software project, nicknamed Phylter, checks on your mental state before letting emails or text messages through to your device. The software screens out these low-priority distractions when it senses that you are focused on another, more important task.
鈥淚magine a system where you have a little dial and you can tell it, 鈥楴ow I鈥檓 kind of busy, so leave me alone鈥�,鈥� says , a computer scientist at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. His team want to set that dial without the user having to do it themselves.
Phylter relies on functional near-infrared spectroscopy to read brain activity. A band worn around the forehead beams light into the head and measures what鈥檚 reflected. This reveals changes in blood flow in the prefrontal cortex 鈥� indicating whether you鈥檙e hard at work or staring into space. A machine learning algorithm calibrates the system to the wearer鈥檚 brain.
Jacob鈥檚 team hooked Phylter up to Google Glass and asked people to try wearing the device while playing a computer game. When fake notifications came in, players had to decide whether or not to take them. Their input helped to teach the system whether something was too important to screen out or ok to ignore.
Down the line, the team hopes that Phylter could help people avoid multitasking and focus better on the task in hand. Sam Hincks, a graduate student in Jacob鈥檚 lab, is working on a version that generates directions based on someone鈥檚 Phylter data. If they seem busy, the system will send them on a less complicated route.
at the University of Alberta in Canada thinks that Phylter could be useful for other groups looking to tailor their technology to the brain. The system is designed to work with a range of devices, including Fitbits and cellphones, and to measure other data besides brain activity, such as heart rate or skin response. 鈥淧hylter would make physiological-driven user interface much more acceptable to app and device developers,鈥� says Mathewson. The prototype was presented at the Human-Computer Interaction International conference in Los Angeles, this week.
Take that look off your face
Concentration is just one mental state that software can be privy to (see main story). A system called Affdex can help others sense our emotions. This is the brainchild of Rana el Kaliouby, who wanted to develop an automated way to capture and amplify emotions on the face, to help those with autism better relate to others鈥� emotions, for example. Developed by tech company Affectiva in Waltham, Massachusetts, Affdex uses algorithms to analyse expressions captured by a webcam.
Firms can also use the system to gauge how people feel about their adverts and TV shows, or to predict sales based on the reactions to ads. Rachel David
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淪oftware, interrupted鈥�
