Fitbit for the brain: cognitive activity tracker

Lately a lot of popularity gained portable gadgets like Fitbit and FuelBand, which counts the number of steps taken and calories burned. But in the future more and more popular may become gadgets that track the activity of reading.

Kai Kunze of Osaka University (Japan) has developed a "tracker cognitive activity." It records how many words you read in a day, how often and how fast to read - and even warn you if casual reading without sufficient concentration.

"Smart Glasses" can even be a short squeeze documents, the most important pieces of text - based on where glance stayed the longest.

The establishment of such gadgets possible through the use of trackers direction of gaze. So far, the largest producer of such devices is a Swedish company Tobii Technology, which has developed a set of nagolovnym infrared cameras to track the movement of the cornea. Camera integrated with the helmet / goggles as Google Glass, or set over the monitor.



Kunze uses the same method. His group has developed software that is able to count the number of words read to an accuracy of 94% and determine the speed of read only eye movements, пишет New Scientist. The program recognizes almost perfectly content type - fiction, glossy magazine, newspaper, scientific article or tutorial - defining the layout of text on the page by eye movements.

According to the inventor, the collected statistics are useful for the users to analyze their reading habits, and publishers of literature, such as textbooks. The latter can understand which parts of the book will cause the greatest difficulties for readers.

Generation "abstract" with important passages is possible if the program knows exactly what the product in the hands of the reader and what page it is open. This synchronization is done wirelessly with your tablet or computer.

Kai Kunze suggests that in the future the technology could be improved. For example, if the user does not understand some fragment of a book or a single term (for example, a man a few seconds looking at one word), the e-book is able to rewrite this piece of text, replace the term for a clear structure or display help information.



Gamers will like it too, that the new glasses can look to aim at enemies.

Scientists who work in this field, believe in the great potential of the technology. They compare "smart glasses" with the invention of computer mouse - and predict the same major changes in computer interfaces. As is the case with the mouse, now even hard to imagine what new programs will appear in a dozen years.

Source: habrahabr.ru/post/213195/