Not tDCS, but EEG used in an new and exciting way.

At this time, she is recalling a previously trained hand gesture: a pinch with her fingers. This happens without removing her hands from the bowl to touch the screen. Just one thought.

This is exactly the case 22 seconds in. Notion detects her intent, and creates metadata that contains this information.

A split second later, thought-based intent turns into reality. As the mobile device receives the intent command created by Notion, the imagined hand gesture pattern is associated with a computer command. In this case, a scroll down event is executed. This happens repeatedly. She scrolls the page, allowing her to continue reading without lifting a finger.

From: You can now think to scroll
More at Neurocity.co
As more of these advanced, less expensive EEG chipsets come to market we can expect to see devices which merge EEG with non-invasive brain stimulation like tDCS or tACS. Applications I’ve seen discussed in the literature suggest that researchers would use specific EEG signals to trigger NIBS to specific areas. For example if the process your brain were doing at this exact moment required optimal functionality from a specific part of your brain, non-invasive stimulation would kick in to assist at that area.

It’s important to keep in mind that this is all speculative and mostly imaginationware at the moment. What I see as a trend in recent research is that the picture is in fact becoming more complicated, implying we know less than we thought we did. Further complications arise as we begin to understand how unique each of our brains are.

I’m not sure how useful a device that allows me to scroll down just by thinking of it will be to the general population. But certainly for people with physical impairments a lower cost, state of the art device that actually does something could be life-changing. Can you think of applications for the Notion that would entice you to own one? Not yet available but you can get on the get on the waiting list of request a Developer Kit here.