Samsung is working on an extra smart TV that you could operate with your brainwaves without any remote. The South Korean tech firm has developed a prototype that lets you operate a Samsung Smart TV only with the brain.
The prototype was demoed last week at Samsung Developer Conference (SDC) in San Francisco, which apparently is company’s second prototype TV. Samsung says that the tech is aimed at people with physical disabilities, and it’ll start testing early next year in Swiss hospitals. The company also intends to use these TVs as smart home hubs.
Samsung’s Swiss entity reportedly started work on this initiative three months ago in partnership with the Center of Neuroprosthetics of the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. It is developing new kind of smart TV software under the codename, Project Pontis, “aims to make Samsung’s televisions more accessible for people with physical disabilities like quadriplegia,” reports CNET.
Martin Kathriner, Head of Public Affairs for Samsung Electronics Switzerland GmbH told CNET that there are limitations with the current hardware. The sensor helmet requires a layer of gel applied to the head, something consumers likely aren’t going to do at home.
After the demo at annual developer conference, Samsung reportedly has plans to further work on the prototype through the first quarter of 2019. The company will then start tests in Swiss hospitals “where we start to explore how this situation, currently a prototype, … is perceived by patients,” added Kathriner.
In this prototype, Samsung first looks to collect a sample of human brain behavior using a headset covered with 64 sensors while looking at an eye tracker. The headset then is connected to a computer which is mirrored to the TV.
According to CNET report, the current prototype uses eye tracking to determine when a user has selected a particular movie. The system then builds a profile of videos the user gravitates toward, which makes it easier to provide lists of content in the future. Both Samsung and EPFL are also working on a system that goes a step further and relies on brain signals alone.
