Haier concept TV wants you to control it with your mind

When it comes to advances in user interaction in the recent past, there are two that really stand out as game-changers: Kinect, which brought gesture controls to the Xbox 360,  and Siri, which brought voice control to the iPhone 4S. But Chinese electronics maker Haier doesn’t think the future of interaction will require us to utter a single word or move a muscle: they think we’ll simply think commands for our gadgets to follow.

In fact,  they brought a concept television to CES 2012.  Interestingly, the unit Haier had on display didn’t actually allow any sort of control over the TV that you might have expected, such as changing the volume or channel or switching video inputs — tasks that you’re likely going to want to do with a television at some point. Instead, they offered up a few casual games to show how the technology works. Haier was quick to note that its engineers are still working on things, but the company remains steadfastly committed to delivering a commercially viable product.

a user blows up a barrel on Haier's mind-controlled TV

This isn’t the first attempt by a company to bring this type of control to consumers. OCZ’s Neural Impulse Actuator allowed PC gamers to do battle using their thoughts (in a roundabout way, at least). The NIA was first shown off at the CeBIT conference in 2008 and it was certainly impressive enough to generate a decent amount of buzz (check out a demo video from Computex below), but it never quite caught on.

So while other companies are looking to deliver Kinect-like gesture controls and voice commands — hello, Samsung — Haier wants to take things to a whole new place. Is this something that you’d actually want on your TV, Sync readers? Or does it sound like the 30 Rock Siri TV disaster that befell Alec Baldwin? Place your fingers on your temples and think your response into the comment section!

[Source: Gizmodo]