AlterEgo: This MIT-developed Device Hears Words You Say in Your Head And Lets You Talk to Computers, Mobiles

AlterEgo, created by MIT researchers, measures neuromuscular signals that get triggered when a person subvocalize.

Mumbai, Apr 11: Subvocalization is the practice of silently saying words in your head. To make use of those silent words, the MIT has developed a wearable gadget that not only hears them but also uses them to operate computer and mobiles. Yes, the device lets you interact with computing devices. The wearable device looks like some weird medical device strapped to your face.

AlterEgo, created by MIT researchers, measures neuromuscular signals that get triggered when a person subvocalize. The device allows a user to silently converse with a computing device without any voice or discernible movements. A person can ask queries or math-related questions and receive aural output through bone conduction without obstructing the user’s physical senses.

“AlterEgo aims to combine humans and computers—such that computing, the internet, and AI would weave into human personality as a “second self” and augment human cognition and abilities,” the description of the device reads. The device has been tested for navigating a Roku, asking for the time and reporting your opponent’s moves in chess to get optimal counter moves via the computer.

“The motivation for this was to build an IA device — an intelligence-augmentation device,” said MIT grad student and lead author Arnav Kapur in a statement. “Our idea was: Could we have a computing platform that’s more internal, that melds human and machine in some ways and that feels like an internal extension of our own cognition?”