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Researcher Sends Telepathic Tweet

Research should help paralysis victims to communicate

By Evann Gastaldo, Newser Staff

Posted Apr 21, 2009 12:17 PM CDT

(Newser) – In a perhaps inevitable move, a researcher posted an update to Twitter earlier this month simply by thinking about it, the Wisconsin Technology Network reports. But don’t make any plans for telepathic tweeting just yet—the doctoral student is researching a communication system for paralyzed patients, not lazy social networkers. This “would really be an enabling type of communication means for those people,” says a professor.

One scientist has hailed the breakthrough as “one of the first—and perhaps most useful—integrations of brain-computer interface techniques with Internet technologies to date.” The system uses electrodes that run between the computer and the user’s head which detect brain activity when the desired letter flashes onscreen. The researcher compared the interface to text messaging and said users can do up to eight characters per minute with practice.

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[Videos (1)]

The Twitter website for the Milwaukee Police Department. (AP Photo/Twitter)

Milwaukee Police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz updates the department's Twitter account in Milwaukee, April 3, 2009. (AP Photo/Carrie Antlfinger)

The Twitter-brain interface. (YouTube)

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University of Wisconsin-Madison biomedical engineering doctoral student Adam Wilson using the brain-computer interface to post to Twitter. (h2so4hurts)

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Researcher Sends Telepathic Tweet