The Advertisers Are Inside Your Brain

DIGITAL EXPERIENCES:

If you though tracking your sleep cycle, heart rate and steps was body tracking, get a load of this. There have been some pretty fantastic digital innovations lately that border on Orwellian scary. Advertisers (who else?) have been finding new ways to control, activate and disseminate ads using consumers body movements. One YouTube video by Virgin Mobile has coined Blinkwashing; the video changes to different tellings of the same advertising message anytime it senses you blink. Another strategy using bone conduction, so when commuters rest their heads on bus or subway windows, they hear a message in their head only audible to them. And, from our agency, Kia had created a series of games controlled by more common means--users control various sports like tae kwon do and racing by detecting a users voice, the movement of their head and other bodily substitutes for the old joystick or button. But, just to up the ante, recently a scientist figured out how to controlled his colleagues body and movements by using his own brain. Rapid advancements in brain-computer interfaces and the continued discovery of the potential capabilities of harnessing tech with our bodies has created a new frontier where our minds and bodies control personalized, larger scale tech. Definitely opens questions about privacy and consent in using our body actions, the future of mind controlled user interfaces, the potential danger of control by others (you thought identity theft was bad, try brain theft), and possible opportunities for the disabled. Among a ton of other things.

Welcome to the future.

Other reading:
NeuroSky - A company selling brainwave bio sensors for personal use
Brain Scanning NeuroToys 
BrainDriver - A car driven and controlled by your thoughts 
Tan Le - A Headset That Reads Your Brainwaves