The Mindtooth system is a brand new wearable device for non-invasive real-time brain measurement in everyday life
New ways of interaction and cooperation between humans and machines will be among the pillars of the 4.0 Industrial Revolution. Just imagine technologies able to adapt their functionalities depending on the mental (workload, attention, stress) states of the people using them.
The decoding of information from human and emotional states in real time without asking anything to the user could, for example, allow the surrounding environment to automatically adapt itself to offer the best conformable or safe condition, even before the user becomes aware of the need to change something (eg lack of attention or increasing of stress).
Until now, this has been an impossible task since the technology able to properly collect the cerebral data and infer from them the internal state of the user was simply not available on the market. However, after several research projects, most of them supported by the European Union, a team of researchers from the University of Rome Sapienza has developed, through the Mindtooth project, a system capable of doing just that.
What is the Mindtooth system?
Mindtooth represents a vision that is now becoming reality thanks to a European Fast-Track-to-Innovation project. A new era within the Human Machine Interaction (HMI) domain will be generated, where systems will (i) be designed taking into consideration the actual user’s perception and (ii) truly become “cognitive-able”, being able to sense users’ psychophysio-logical state and to make informed decisions according to their timely needs and intentions.
This video explains the goals of the Mindtooth project.
The Mindtooth brain (EEG) headset has been developed through a user-centred design approach, demonstrating that no discomfort to the user is induced, ensuring a high wearability with a high signal quality. In this regard, the hardware embedded in the Mindtooth headset has been developed by Brain Products, leading company in the field of EEG recording systems.
This video shows the advanced headset prototype.
The core of the Mindtooth system is the evaluation of the internal user’s mental states, performed with methodologies developed over 10 years of research and now patented by the BrainSigns company. We have already demonstrated such methodologies have been in many “out-of-the-lab” contexts (ie military and commercial pilots, air traffic controllers, car drivers, surgeons), by giving easy access to a large number of neural indicators, namely “Neurometrics”, related to different processes going on in the brain. In other words, they represent metrics reflecting specific human internal states.
Advantages of the technology
The Mindtooth system outperforms any potential rivals on the following key aspects:
Accuracy and reliability: Use of Neurometrics validated in several EU projects and international collaborations and, most importantly, in different out-of-the-lab contexts (eg aviation, air traffic management, auto-motive, industry) therefore capable of: (i) ensuring high and reliable EEG signal quality; and (ii) providing accurate assessment of the user’s mental and emotional states.
Suitability: The paradigm employed by Mindtooth is “plug and play” and this is highly appreciated by potential customers as the only approach operationally suitable for everyday life applications.
Hybrid edge-cloud architecture: The data collection is positioned where the data originates, then they are sent to the cloud for elaboration, aggregation and visualisation taking advantage of all the benefits of the cloud.
Expected impact of the Mindtooth project
The challenge of the Mindtooth project is to exploit the neuroscientific evaluation of humans “out-of-the-lab”, ie in daily situations and in operational sectors, by giving easy access to a large number of indicators related to different processes going on in the brain, such as the mental workload, cooperation, stress and vigilance. The Mindtooth system is expected to be revolutionary for society. Enabling a smart channel of communication between the human mind and machines in a systematic, reproducible and affordable way, would produce invaluable benefits in a huge set of current social challenges, such as smart and connected cities, connected and automated vehicles, cybersecurity, health, safety and Industry 4.0.
The impact of Mindtooth is then foreseen to be transversal, universal and ground-breaking, as was the Bluetooth® concept, which has been revolutionary in allowing different devices to be connected. Mindtooth will enter the market by the end of 2022.
Mindtooth has received funding from the European Union’s HORIZON 2020 Research programme under the Grant Agreement no. 950998, EIC-FTI-2018-2020 – Fast Track to Innovation (FTI)
*Please note: This is a commercial profile
© 2019. This work is licensed under CC-BY-NC-ND.
