Microsoft has announced the release to manufacturing of Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3).

According to their press release:

We are also in the final stages of preparing for release to the web (i.e. you!) on April 29th, via Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center. Online documentation for Windows XP SP3, such as Microsoft Knowledge Base articles and the Microsoft TechNet Windows XP TechCenter, will be updated then. For customers who use Windows XP at home, Windows XP SP3 Automatic Update distribution for users at home will begin in early summer.

An overview and manual download link for XP SP3 can be found here.

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Lots of people like to give The Register all kinds of grief for it’s … umm … informal style of reporting?

Of course, it has nothing to do with their ability to ferret out such gems tech companies would prefer not to become common knowledge, such as Phorm’s proposed deep-packet inspection or BT’s still inexplicable secret testing of the same against a large number of users without their knowledge.

Honest.

It almost certainly isn’t because of stories such as this one, which tells of a potential problem with Windows Defender (a Microsoft security application). It seems that a recent update to Windows Defender is causing USB devices to die.

Microsoft (who of course you’d expect have already tested the upgrade against a wide number of standard system configurations, such as one having something plugged into it via USB) notes:

“We are aware of concerns that a recent Microsoft update may be causing problems with USB devices. We are investigating the matter, and at this time, do not have any information to share.”

Whether or not that means they don’t have any information, or do have information but are just unwilling to share it, is left as an exercise for the reader.

At the same time, The Register also points out that the SP1 upgrade for Vista is now available in more languages, but only for manual updates (as opposed to automatic).

According to Microsoft, the delay in adding the final 31 languages to the automatic Windows Update is:

“Microsoft wants to ensure customers have the best possible experience with Windows Vista …”

Unfortunately, this isn’t an admission that they’re about to start shipping sledgehammers to those poor unfortunates saddled with Vista, or XP to install in its place, which might go some way to providing much more fulfilling experiences of its users.

I wonder if they’ll bundle them with Vista SP2 - before or after the torch-wielding mob shows up?

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Either something is in the tap-water-from-a-spring PR drones in the UK are drinking, or an intrinsically abject failure of intelligence is coming to the fore, but they seem to be losing their “magic” touch of late.

“We were adware, not spyware, honest” Phorm was caught with its hand in the cookie jar (no pun intended) recently, making some rather intriguing “clarifications” of the Wikipedia entry about the company.

Having read the differences between the two versions (pre and post PR drone assault), I can understand why Phorm might want to “clarify” their entry.  Parts of the entry they “clarified” include

regarding a targeted advertisement service which would monitor browsing habits and serve relevant advertisements to the end user.

which became

regarding a targeted advertisement service called Webwise. Webwise creates an anonymous data digest of a users browsing behaviour and serves relevant advertisements to the end user

There’s also

“As you browse, we’re able to categorize all of your Internet actions,” said Virasb Vahidi, the chief operating officer of Phorm. “We actually can see the entire Internet.”

(Originally quoted from a recent NYTimes article about Phorm, added to the Wikipedia entry)

which was converted to … well, OK, it was deleted, not converted.  I guess not even PR drones could make that less ominous.

This one is cute:

Users will be able to [[opt-out]] of Phorm’s service. However, according to a spokesman for Phorm, the way the opt-out works means the contents of the websites you visit will still be [[Mirror (computing)|mirrored]] to its system.<ref>

became

Users will be able to [[opt-out]] of Phorm’s service by blocking cookies from the domain, www.webwise.com or switching the system off

Aha!  So, if you want to block Phorm, all you have to do is turn your computer off - which also is the tried and tested way of avoiding other malware like viruses, trojans, adware, and spam emails.  So, to avoid being monitored, all you have to do is … not use your computer?

I suppose the added bonus from the perspective of the ISPs is that you’re also not going to be using their bandwidth at the same time.

To cap it all off, the PR drones also seem to have decided that any mention of the secret trials BT ran (then denied, then admitted to a year later after Phorm became “public knowledge”) should probably be deleted from the Wikipedia entry as well.

What I don’t understand is, just how did they expect to actually get away with this blatant revisionism?  Tracking of Wikipedia edits is nothing new, they must have known that, given the public interest in Phorm, someone would notice.

Thankfully, someone did, and the original entry was reinstated.

The other oopsie of note is the PR drones from O2, a mobile phone provider in the UK, calling a reporter from The Register.

Unfortunately, they weren’t done with their little conference call on what they were going to tell the reporter before they called.  Cue “Oh really?” moment for the reporter.

The discussion, between two in-house PRs, centred around how to paint anyone wanting more bandwidth than the 128Kb/sec O2 deems suitable as clearly being “a bunch of techie nerds”.

Of course, these are communications professionals, so they wisely discuss how to avoid using that term, or as they put it, find “…a good way of saying they’re all geeks”.

Yes, O2’s comms team was keen to avoid anything that might encourage subscribers to leave the telco. Indeed, in their eyes, anyone threatening to leave the network is clearly a “muppet”, with the PRs asking each other incredulously “…and join who? 3?”

So you see, it isn’t just Presidents talking to poodles … erm, Prime Ministers that can forget who might be listening.

Makes me yearn for the good old days of Saatchi and Saatchi.  Now there were some fine PR drones - nowadays, it seems the emphasis is on “drone”

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In recent months, there has been growing discussion online regarding the proposed deal between major ISPs in the UK, such as BT, Virgin Media, and Carphone Warehouse, and a company called Phorm.

The basic premise goes something like this¹:

1. A customer of an ISP signed up for the system types in a URL.
2. The page request is routed through the ISP to Phorm’s servers.
3. Phorm’s servers modify a cookie on the user’s computer.
4. Phorm’s servers forward the request for a URL to the website being requested.
5. The website being requested sends back all the relevant page data to Phorm’s servers.
6. Phorm’s servers “profile” the content of the website.
7. Phorm’s servers relay the page data from the site being visited to the user, along with relevant advertisements based on the site content as well as relevance from prior browsing profiled the same way for that user.

This allows Phorm, and the ISPs contracted to it, to intercept requests for page data, as well as the response from sites, to determine contextual advertisements to display.

This plan sounds good on the face of it, but it’s a plan that’s fraught with some major concerns.

Opt-In vs Opt-Out

When Phorm’s system first came to light, one cause for concern and ire was the stance being promoted by all three of the ISPs in question with regards to user participation. All three of them stated that the Phorm system would operate as an “Opt-out” technique by default - Users would automatically be subject to this method unless they removed themselves from participation.

This differs hugely from the current “ethical” standards adopted by most mass-marketing bodies - the ability of many users to even know they have been “enrolled” in this program, let alone how to disable it by opting out, is very limited from a social awareness perspective. There are good reasons to believe that users will not be made aware they’ve been enrolled in this system as well.

Deception

Over a year ago, users questioned BT about suspicious redirects of their browsers, through servers traced back to Phorm. BT categorically denied any involvement or relationship with Phorm at the time, instead trying to persuade users that the behaviour they were experiencing must be the result of a third-party compromise of the users’ computers. These denials were repeated to The Register, an online IT-related medium.

However, after the announcements by the ISPs and Phorm itself of the proposed commercial agreement to roll out Phorm’s system, BT was finally forced to admit that it had, in fact, run a covert testing of Phorm’s technology, stating²:

“We conducted a very small scale technical test of a prototype advertising platform on one exchange in June 2007. The test was specifically conducted to evaluate the functional and technical performance of the platform.

“Absolutely no personally identifiable information was processed, stored or disclosed during this trial. As with all service providers, it is important for BT to ensure that, before any potential new technologies are employed, they are robust and fit for purpose.”

This is worrisome on several levels, not least of which is BTs avoidance of any explanation as to why it denied this was in progress when asked about it during the summer of 2007.

Also of concern is just who Phorm is - or, more accurately, was. Phorm used to be known as 121Media. 121Media’s reputation is less than exemplary, with their PeopleOnPage application having been classified as spyware.

Questionable Privacy Assurances

Phorm and the ISPs involved have stated that the system itself will not store any personally identifiable information. This may be somewhat disingenius of them however. The system will set cookies and be able to trace a user’s browsing habits - that is, after all, its purpose for serving advertisements tailored to the user’s browsing habits.

Whilst the system itself might not be able to store information, it’s entirely likely that it can be used in conjunction with other logs and analysis performed by the ISPs to track a specific user by account and then cross reference it to browsing habits.

Given that BT has already deceived users about testing this system, its methods, and seems to feel opting users in by default is perfectly acceptable, there are serious question marks over any of its assurances now.

If BT felt it necessary to lie about Phorm in 2007, the question must be whether or not they were concerned their own privacy policies, and the privacy of users, would be a concern - enough they had to conceal the system as long as possible.

Likewise, there are a good number of similarities between the spyware of 121Media and the mechanism Phorm proposes to use, one major difference being Phorm is a deep-packet inspection, sitting astride a user’s connection to the internet itself making it much more effective and impossible to be sure of bypassing. There is insufficient information available on how the system behaves should a user be opted out, other than it disabled targetted advertising - nothing regarding if opting out removes that deep packet inspection itself.

Content Owners

There are pressing concerns for site owners and operators, on several levels, too.

Whilst site owners currently are able to generate revenue from their content if they choose, it is the advertisements they choose, in the locations and manner they choose, on the content they create and own. Most advertisement systems available to site owners permit those owners to filter out advertisers as well, such as competing businesses.

Phorm, however, takes the control away from site content owners. Not only does the site owner have no ability to prevent Phorm advertisements from appearing, it has no control over the advertisements that may show. A website for a small website design company for example may end up with advertisements for competitors being displayed “on” their site, by virtue of Phorm intercepting the transmission of the site content to the user.

Additionally, there is a copyright question to be answered. Phorm’s system, by “profiling” sites to determine the user’s interests, is effectively using that site content for commercial ends - selling advertisements. How does this play when taking the copyrights of the content creators into account? if a site is marked as being licensed under Creative Commons as “NC”, No Commercial Use permitted, is Phorm violating that license by using the content in a commercial manner, even indirectly.

Current advertising systems, such as AdSense, do provide contextual advertisement based on a site’s content, but that is controlled by the content owner - they can choose not to use AdSense and similar system. Phorm denies them that control.

It’s even conceivable, given that Phorm operates through deep packet inspection, that it could be used to display Phorm’s advertisements instead of those I place on my site(s) through AdSense. The data for my web pages passes through their systems, and it could replace the code for my AdSense with their own equivalent.

There are also serious questions regarding private content, such as that behind access controlled areas of web sites. There is no explanation available of what information Phorm retains of websites that are profiled - and if that profiling will analyse website content that was protected behind access control.

Phorm has stated that personal financial information will not be collected, however that is not the only “private” information a user may view. If a website is membership based for viewing stories, for example, will Phorm profile the contents? Given that Phorm appears to perform a deep packet inspection regardless of the user’s settings because of its proposed position astride the user’s connection at the ISPs level, it is not beyond the realms of possibility that it will profile website content that is not public.

Does this qualify as computer trespass or unauthorized access? It’s unlikely any content provider permits Phorm to access private areas of their content without authorization.

Worst, there is no way for content owners to prevent Phorm profiling their site content, short of detecting and blocking access completely to users of the ISPs signed up for Phorm.

If Phorm uses website content to generate revenue without the consent of site owners, are they violating the intellectual property rights of the content owners? It might make for an interesting class-action lawsuit against the ISPs and Phorm for copyright/licensing infringement - especially if a couple of million website owners were the affected class.

I know for certain the content of my sites are not licensed for commercial use, as evidenced by the technical means I use to prevent feed thieves for example.

I certainly haven’t been approached by Phorm or the ISPs concerned to license my content to be used in their advertising services, even though it appears the content of my site(s) will be an integral part of Phorm’s system to deliver contextual advertising.

Government

Phorm’s system is being questioned as being legal under the United Kingdom’s Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA)³. It’s likely that this will not be considered a violation, because it isn’t a government or governmental agency that will be performing the monitoring, rather a commercial third party with titular assent by users (the opt-out issue).

This does however risk being used as a backdoor to bypass RIPA by the government. Once the data is collected, it’s there - how much effort would it take for the government to then request access to a user’s browsing habits - information it could not collect legally itself bt Phorm might be perfectly legally able to?

The United Kingdom is already bordering on a police state. It has the most number of cameras watching its citizenry in Europe, as well as the largest DNA database in the world, which contains information on innocent people (including children) based solely on suspicion. People have been convicted of crimes based solely on their possession of material deemed “offensive” by the Government, a clear infringement of the human rights to both privacy and freedom of speech, but such matters are glossed over “for the public good”.

If the UK Government hasn’t considered the potential to exploit a third party’s data collection practices to increase its surveillance of its own citizenry, then they’re fools. If RIPA regulates their ability to snoop on their citizens, a system such as Phorm is the perfect bypass to add to the great centralized database the UK Government is striving towards obtaining on all of its people.

Conclusions

Phorm has far too many question marks over it to be allowed to go into operation yet.

This situation is just as “wrong” as Verisign’s system to hijack redirects to their own search system, and for similar reasons. Whilst this type of situation at an application level is more “acceptable”, since it requires the user to assent to the service, as with Verisign’s redirect system Phorm is an infrastructure layer service that is beyond a user’s ability to control.

Spyware is legally actionable, because it generally is installed on a computer without the user’s informed consent. Phorm effectively takes spyware to a new level, because it bypasses laws designed to protect users from such practices by hijacking their connection path through their ISP, not the user’s computer.

[Updated 4/1/2008 @ 1613]

BBC News Online has an article by Darren Waters, the Technology Editor of the BBC News Online website, stating that a “leading digital rights lawyer” believes BT’s testing of Phorm’s system was potentially illegal.

New Related External Links added

1. Source: The Register - How Phorm plans to tap your internet connection [back]
2. Source: The Register - BT admits misleading customers over Phorm experiments [back]
3. Source: The Register - Data pimping: surveillance expert raises illegal wiretap worries [back]

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I love space. No, really, I do. That’s one of the reasons I write science fiction. Between “Inner Space”, the world’s oceans, and outer space, what lies outside our atmospheric cocoon, it’s hard to tell which one is the most “alien”, and the most fascinating for me.

But space … To paraphrase Douglas Adams, it’s big - mind-bogglingly big. The potentials for me, as an author, are obvious.

We didn’t “understand” the world itself much a few hundred years ago, and that gave rise to flights of fancy - “Here be dragons”. In modern times, we’re only just beginning to get a handle on the world we live on, and are discovering that it’s not just the tip of the iceberg - it’s a snowflake on a glacier, comparatively speaking. Out there, in space, there is so much we don’t understand, so much potential. It gives me the chance to say “There be dragons” - and to wonder.

Wonder because as vivid and fertile my imagination might be, it’s almost a sure bet that what is really out there will be even more spectacular, even more wild and wonderous, even more “alien”.

But, as much as I enjoy putting dragons on the celestial maps in the minds of my readers, it’s only imagination. For a lucky few, space is a reality. Whether they be astronauts or cosmonauts, men or women, these people get to go into space, to live and work.

They also get reminded now and again of Mr Murphy - That zany legislator that sits over the shoulder of everyone waiting for just the right moment to strike. The astronauts of STS-123 have been having long chats with Mr Murphy since they launched into space carrying part of Japan’s Kibo module, and the Canadian Dextre robot, to the International Space Station last week.

I’m thinking Dextre and C3PO of Star Wars fame both have an aversion to being in space. It began with power problems to the robot, then problems removing one of the massive “arms” from the special pallet the pieces were all attached to for shipping to the ISS.

I think space is one of the few places left where there are always challenges. Equipment costing billions of Dollars, billions of Euros, billions of Yen, and everything risks being brought to a screeching halt because Mr Murphy is feeling frisky. When the technology starts to fail, ingenuity, creative thinking, and sometimes simple brute force are brought into play.

A couple of the bolts holding one of Dextre’s arms to the pallet wouldn’t budge during the latest assembly segment of the flight. If the media is to be believed, nothing would get around the bolts - until someone had the bright idea of using a prybar.

All that money spent on all that equipment, and it was a couple of dollars worth of metal bar that fixed the issue (although, it being for a NASA contract, someone probably charged the government $600 for that prybar).

When I read it, my mind went back to one of my copious reminder “Musings On Matters Spatial”.

An object in motion tends to remain in motion until it bumps into your protagonist

Remembering that in free fall, pushing against something usually results in you moving in the opposite direction, I wonder how many raised eyebrows the prybar idea raised. After all, the only thing up there to hold on to, to gain leverage from, is the station itself - or, more likely, standing on the end of the Canadarm system.

Now, I’ve seen pictures of astronauts standing on the platform at the end of Canadarm. It looks really thin and flimsy. I’m sure it’s perfectly safe, but still, standing on the end of a robotic arm whilst trying to lever recalcitrant bolts?

Hell yeah
When I was a kid, I made myself a promise that one day, I’d get to go into space, which even back then had captured my imagination. It might take a while yet, NASA has yet to discover that a lack of working legs isn’t necessarily a handicap in free fall it seems, but I’ll get there. In the meantime, I’ll just watch NASA TV online, and dream, and sigh at those astronauts who have the best job in town.

Source: NASA ¹

1. S123-E-006101 (13/14 March 2008) — Astronaut Rick Linnehan, STS-123 mission specialist, participates in the mission’s first scheduled session of extravehicular activity (EVA) as construction and maintenance continue on the International Space Station. During the seven-hour and one-minute spacewalk, Linnehan and astronaut Garrett Reisman (out of frame), Expedition 16 flight engineer, prepared the Japanese logistics module-pressurized section (JLP) for removal from Space Shuttle Endeavour’s payload bay; opened the Centerline Berthing Camera System on top of the Harmony module; removed the Passive Common Berthing Mechanism and installed both the Orbital Replacement Unit (ORU) tool change out mechanisms on the Canadian-built Dextre robotic system, the final element of the station’s Mobile Servicing System. [back]

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Tom Simonite over at New Scientist magazine reported recently about a new development in thought-to-* devices.

Named “Audeo”, the device intercepts and interprets the nerve impulses your brain sends to your vocal cords, reproducing the words you thought to speak electronically. Outwardly, it’s just a neckband, but it’s hard to determine from the information what other equipment is needed, assuming the neckband is just the “receiver” that catches the impulses.

The device was “unveiled” at a Texas Instruments conference, with Michael Callahan, co-founder of Ambient Corporation, demonstrating the device in a cross-stage phone call.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Going by the video of the device above, there are obviously some technical issues still to be worked on. Currently, it only recognizes around 150 words, although the company plans to release a new version that detects the impulses of phonemes themselves. This will remove the reliance on a “dictionary” of words, in theory making the device’s vocabulary unlimited. It looks from the video that triggering the device not only requires training, but also a lot of concentration, given what looks like lag in speaking.

Even so, given this may now be simply a matter of fine tuning the engineering work, the benefits of such a device are obvious, and thankfully Ambient Corporation seem to be fully aware of them (unlike Emotiv Systems and their EPOC neural headset). Plans apparently are to trial Audeo in the near future with people who have ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), and to my mind there’s one person who should be right up on their list of candidates - Professor Stephen Hawking.

Audeo has also been used to control a wheelchair by “thought” it seems.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

With all these new neural devices being developed, assuming costs can be brought down to manageable levels and availability be widespread, we may be looking at a new era in assistive technology potential. The possibilities to increase the independence of people with disabilities are being expanded on a technological level - the question remains however if society can keep pace with the technology and grant social independence to members of the community at the same time.

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El Reg was kind enough to tell geekdom of Nine Inch Nails‘ new album, Ghosts.

Why would El Reg care? Probably because of the way NiN is distributing it. The first nine tracks are available for free download, with the option to order the rest of the album (36 tracks in all) either as high quality downloads or the 2-CD set.

This isn’t the first time a band has tried to work with their fan base to distribute their works, everyone’s familiar with Radiohead’s dabbling with online distribution, but I think this is one of the first times since the demise of MP3.com that a reasonable idea has been floated. Unlike Radiohead’s attempt, the 36 tracks $5 will get you are high quality in multiple formats, and 2 CDs for $10 is a decent price by anyone’s standards.

Cynics are likely to claim that NiN can only really do this because they’re a “name” band, but that shouldn’t mean the idea has no merit. Far less well-known bands have achieved prominence without major label backing, such as Emerald Rose, so any experiments on ways to lever the Internet are worthwhile. It might take a “name” band to have the courage to do those experiments, but each attempt, each method tried, in the end will find more ways to break the antiquated model the music labels use to fill their pockets.

Oh, and if you haven’t heard Emerald Rose yet, you’re missing out - try some!

[Edit] It seems that things are a little too good to be true.  Even at decent cheap prices with the majority of the revenue going to the artist, there are still a bunch of people around who can’t be bothered to pay for it.  I guess the culture of entitlement is alive and well - but you can’t call these people “fans” by any stretch of the imagination.  I think there’s rules against using the words that come to mind.

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… Might not be great right now.

Microsoft’s woes with the long heralded but problematic replacement for Windows XP seem far from over.

Service Pack 1 (SP1), due for widespread release in mid-March 2008, has a worrysome knowledgebase article¹:

Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista is an important update for Windows Vista. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) contains many security, reliability, and feature updates for Windows Vista. A program may experience a loss of functionality after you install Windows Vista SP1. However, most programs will continue to work as expected after you install Windows Vista SP1.

The list of programs affected includes several security-related applications, including BitDefender AV, Jiangmin KV Antivirus, and ZoneAlarm Security Suite.

The knowledgebase mentions “A supported version is now available” for most of the applications, but it’s still curious - What exactly did Microsoft change in Vista for “security and reliability” that involved blocking some security products from even running?

It’s fortunate that the knowledgebase and the “supported versions” vendors had to create to account for SP1’s changes have come out before the main roll-out of SP1, but it’s still a “twitch” - MSDN members have had access to SP1 for a little while already, but why wasn’t this spotted before SP1 was released to the public on any level?

This isn’t the first “major” oopsie with Vista SP1, Microsoft has already had to withdraw a recent patch² somewhat critical to SP1 because it stopped some PCs from booting properly after being applied.

What might be an even bigger distraction for Microsoft at the moment is the certification of a class action lawsuit³ against them in District Court last week, regarding claims made prior to the release of Vista and compatibility. Microsoft is having to borrow money for the first time in its history in its attempts to buy Yahoo!, the thought of a major class action suit of the scale this one could reach is likely not a pleasant one for investors.

All of which is likely little comfort to those people who upgraded to Vista and have had nothing but troubles to date. It appears Microsoft has realized how much goodwill it stands to lose if the amount of reported problems are anything to go by with regards to the number of users who are seriously hacked off with Vista, and has reportedly quietly started offering Vista to XP “downgrades”⁴. Personally, I think such a migration qualifies as an upgrade, but I’m not a PR specialist …

1. Source: The Register - Vista SP1 kills and maims security apps, utilities [back]
2. Source: The Register - Redmond puts key Vista upgrade on ice [back]
3. Source: The Register - Judge greenlights lawsuit against Microsoft [back]
4. Source: PC World - Vista Backlash: Microsoft Quietly Lets Vista Users Revert to XP [back]

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Back in the depths of time (or at least in ‘Confirmation Of Faith’), I jumped feet-deep into the whole cyber-era with the introduction of the Starwolves to the Legion Universe. One of the devices mentioned was the ‘Halo’, a non-implanted system to allow protagonists to interface with the ships. The ‘Halo’, for those of you who haven’t been keeping up with the latest and greatest developments over the past 750 thousand years of a race of hyper-intelligent artificial sentiences, acted as the analog of Neural Cores, linking the temporary versions of the other implants together to provide a limited emulation of the cybernetic abilities full-blown implants offered.

Happily, people with more ability to make such things a reality than I seem to have been working on a similar principle in reality. It’s not ‘new’ technology, but Emotiv Systems seems to have brought the entire concept of (temporary) neural interfaces a few steps further with the news of their EPOC neural headset.

Admittedly, most of the use for the device seems to be a blurring of the lines between true neural impulse detection and reaction, and detecting and reaction to movement of the muscles in the face and head. The software behind the technology comes in three parts:

• Affectiv™ Suite
  The Affectiv suite monitors player emotional states in real-time. It provides an extra dimension in game interaction by allowing the game to respond to a player’s emotions. Characters can transform in response to the player’s feeling. Music, scene lighting and effects can be tailored to heighten the experience for the player in real-time. The Affectiv suite can be used to monitor player state of mind and allow developers to adjust difficulty to suit each situation.
• Cognitiv™ Suite
  The Cognitiv suite reads and interprets a player’s conscious thoughts and intent. Gamers can manipulate virtual objects using only the power of their thought! For the first time, the fantasy of magic and supernatural power can be experienced.
• Expressiv™ Suite
  The Expressiv suite uses the signals measured by the neuroheadset to interpret player facial expressions in real-time. It provides a natural enhancement to game interaction by allowing game characters to come to life. When a player smiles, their avatar can mimic the expression even before they are aware of their own feelings. Artificial intelligence can now respond to players naturally, in ways only humans have been able to until now.

Source: Emotiv

A lot of what we’re ‘thinking’ can be read from our facial expressions and movements, such body language is a critical part of law enforcement for example (and was pretty useful to read in close protection, too), and it’s logical that Emotiv have taken that concept on board when developing the system. Until someone comes up with a way to use the implants themselves that are so useful in the Legion Universe, this looks to be the nearest thing available in reality.

One thing that puzzles me though. Emotive Systems is aiming this device heavily towards the gaming community. It might be that this is “where the money is”, but their web site makes no mention at all of the potential this device could have for people with disabilities. I do wonder if something like this, given it’s presumed ability to detect facial movements, might not be able to pick up on minute expressions that are ‘invisible’ to observation. If it can do that, the potential for enabling communication for many is enormous.

Emotiv Systems is releasing the EPOC headset on a limited basis to the US only from February 19th 2008, and they say it will retail at $299. That prices it lower than some assistive technology devices even at the outset, I hope someone sees the potential and runs with it!

But no, contrary to popular belief that I’ll be the first to get myself plugged into the ‘Net when neural interfaces become a reality, I’m not going to run out and buy one of these just yet.

It doesn’t come in purple
BBC News Online has an article here.

Oddly, The Register hasn’t found it yet!

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