alterego

via site [https://www.alterego.io/]:

Introducing Alterego, the first near-telepathic interface, designed to make technology as intuitive as using your inner voice.

Alterego is a breakthrough technology that connects you with AI through a minimal, non-invasive device. Using Silent Sense, it understands what you intend to say without speaking, allowing you to extend your thinking without the need to type, tap, or talk out loud.

The most intuitive interface

From normal speech to silent communication that feels like telepathy, Alterego adapts to however you choose to interact.

Designed to fade away

Stay completely hands-free and screen-free while accessing AI, sending messages, and getting information on the fly.

Your thoughts stay private

Alterego only responds to intentional, silent speech. Your private thoughts stay private, and you direct every interaction.

via tweet [https://x.com/medialab/status/1965168977531052523]:

We are so pleased to see Alterego, which began as a project in the Media Lab’s @fluidinterfaces group, spin out into a new company. Learn more: https://x.com/alterego_io/status/1965113585299849535

@fluidinterfaces (Building upon insights from psychology and neuroscience, the Fluid Interfaces group creates systems and interfaces for cognitive enhancement. @medialab @MIT Cambridge, MA fluid.media.mit.edu) – linked to pattie maes and advancing humans with ai (aha).. ron ivey at aha.. mit aha speakers on ai

Introducing Alterego: the world’s first near-telepathic wearable that enables silent communication at the speed of thought. Alterego makes AI an extension of the human mind.

alterego via wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlterEgo]:

AlterEgo is a proprietary wearable silent speech output-input device developed by MIT Media Lab. The device is attached around the head, neck and jawline and translates muscular and neural activity into words on a computer without vocalization.

potential for lanier beyond words law.. toward tech as it could be.. via idiosyncratic jargon ness et al.. to undo our hierarchical listening

Description

The device consists of seven small electrodes that attach at various points around the jawline and mouth to monitor electrical inputs to the muscles used for speech.

The device is a form of peripheral neural-computer interface. The device primarily reads electrical activity from neural signals in the speech musculature and not from the brain directly to preserve a user’s privacy. This means that the device does not capture speech imagery, but captures intended silent speech where the muscles are very subtly activated.

The device uses machine learning and statistical models to predict a user’s intended speech.

Background

AlterEgo was designed by Arnav Kapur, a graduate student at MIT, and became public in 2018. The device was designed to help people with speech disabilities. In 2018, the device was presented at the Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces where the research team reported a 92% median word-accuracy rate.

arnav kapur via wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnav_Kapur]:

Arnav Kapur is a computer scientist and engineer at MIT. He is known for his work and advocacy in developing AI systems that enhance and complement human abilities.

need 1st/most: means (nonjudgmental expo labeling) to undo hierarchical listening as global detox so we can org around legit needs

tech as it could be

ai as augmenting interconnectedness

otherwise we’ll keep perpetuating the same song.. the whac-a-mole-ing ness of sea world.. of not-us ness

Career

In 2016, Kapur worked at the Biomedical Cybernetics Laboratory at Harvard Medical School. While at Harvard, he showed that gene expression data in microarray and RNA-Seq experiments, could be considered approximately low-rank, which could then be used to reliably predict the data.

After this, Kapur attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology, working at the MIT Media Lab. While at MIT, he developed a peripheral neural interface, dubbed AlterEgo, that recorded neuromuscular signals, sent from the brain to the various muscles of the speech system through subtle and voluntary stimulation, and transcribed them into basic speech commands. This created a silent speech interface, having applications in *facilitating speech for individuals who had lost the ability to communicate verbally. In 2018, Kapur in an interview with 60 Minutes, detailed the inner workings of the prototype and showcased a live demonstration. In 2019, Kapur gave a talk at TED, and demonstrated an updated version of the system. He talked about how ethics can inform design and engineering as a principle and **advocated for technologies such as AI to be designed in a way that extended human capabilities.

*and to facil idiosyncratic jargon ness.. so that we can overcome (let go of) language as control/enclosure

**beyond ‘capability’ ness.. ie: mufleh humanity law et al..

Kapur has also exhibited artwork and AI tools that collaborate with human artists. His work has been exhibited at alt.ai New York, Design Museum, Art Center Nabi.

notes/quotes from 4 min video clip in tweet:

arnav: alter ego give you the power of telepathy.. but only for the thoughts you want to share.. you talk just like you normally would but w/o making a sound (from the outside it looks like telepathy)..

arnav: we all have moments when inspiration strikes and you want to save an idea before it slips away.. you can now capture those instantly w/o lifting a finger

arnav: alterego has tiny cameras built in and can make sense of the world around me from my perspective.. you can get so much done w alterego.. but i want to talk about how it changes communication

1 min – arnav: works w other people wearing an alterego.. it feels almost telepathic

2 min – (other guy): having a direct convo is possible w/o saying a word.. the signals alter ego detects aren’t affecgted by environ noise.. what you want to say will always get across.. it’s like having infinite noise cancellation..

arnav: if you’re traveling.. your silent speech can be converted into any language..

yeah.. this is huge to idiosyncratic jargon ness et al

3 min – arnav: for all of human history we’ve built tools to extend our abilities.. but we never perfected the tool and the interface *to extend the human mind.. alterego gives us that.. a way to communicate at the speed of talk

*deeper/better.. w/o language barriers.. et al.. for global detox leap via non hierarchical listening.. tech/ai as nonjudgmental expo labeling

arnav: tech no longer a box we carry but an extension of ourselves

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