The operating system's most basic function is to be the "middleman" between the hardware of a computer and its programs. I like to think of it as sort of a translator, because without it there would be no communication going on. Communication between computer components is key to a computer's functioning, so if the operating system did not exist, computers would not work the way they should.
With that in mind, BCI relies heavily on a sturdy, secure, and efficient operating system. I am not aware of an operating system built specifically to work with BCI, and as far as I am concerned, none of the current major operating systems would suffice; therefore a brand new operating system would have to be written to function effectively with all the components of BCI.
The best bet for an operating system would be something similar to a lightweight mobile operating system with the flexibility and security of a major operating system. It would have to be lightweight so as not to take up large amounts of storage space, flexible to accommodate the new kind of technology with unknown bounds, and secure enough to not cause unwanted access to someone's brain. Security is probably the most important key and would have to be taken very seriously.
Despite thinking a brain-user interface is somewhat far-fetched, i beleive the idea of having an operating system to interact with the brain is interesting in itself. Would the messages then appear in our minds? would the OS have a graphical interface in our minds or would we "say" commands in our heads to it like a unix-based operating system?
ReplyDeleteSee that's where it gets a bit beyond our current technology. We are certainly capable of "sending" information from our brains to an outside computer. You see it somewhat commonly in medicine. The difficult part is having the brain receive information, and I do not really have an answer for that yet.
ReplyDeleteYou know I've already passed my required number of comments but i think this might be interesting, i don't know if you're aware of the DVORAK keyboard layout, keys are mapped depending on how much they're used rather than randomly, like ours, so typing rates improve a lot. This relates to your post because maybe what you're looking for is a way of communication through body movement. Keyboards have buttons that need to be pressed, imagine if there was a glove where any hand motion is considered input, say touch your thumb to your pink is an H, maybe pointer finger completely retracted could be a click? who knows.
ReplyDeleteThey actually do make a glove similar to what you're talking about. It's technically a mouse, but it pretty much fits the bill.
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