That sank without a trace - no comments, no upvotes - perhaps this report will get a better response. I think it's interesting, so I hope it does.
It's a fascinating idea, getting yes/no answers from brain scans. The potential is there for using text output devices similar to those that Hawking uses, except driven by the patient imagining playing tennis.
Well, I would hope the first application is to determine if the patient is in physical pain and where that pain is. Reducing suffering should be priority one. The next part I would hope would be to see if the patients can recognize voices of loved ones. I would imagine these two milestones could help patients learn to "write" to such a device, which could be automated to flag down a nurse or turn on a radio for a while or something.
The real question from this though is about the patient's rights to choose. IANAL but if I understand it correctly this could cause difficult questions in consent, especially where minors are concerned.
That sank without a trace - no comments, no upvotes - perhaps this report will get a better response. I think it's interesting, so I hope it does.
It's a fascinating idea, getting yes/no answers from brain scans. The potential is there for using text output devices similar to those that Hawking uses, except driven by the patient imagining playing tennis.