Delhi-born The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) student Arnav Kapur created the “AlterEgo” device. It is a “mind-reading” headset with AI capabilities. Users can communicate with machines, AI helpers, and other individuals by internally articulating words with the device, whose prototype made its debut in 2018. When bone conduction is used to transmit and receive streams of information, communication is completely internal and private. In essence, this means that after wearing the gadget, one can order a pizza or a tube ride without having to speak to anyone.
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As per MIT, “AlterEgo is a non-invasive, wearable, peripheral neural interface that allows humans to converse in natural language with machines, artificial intelligence assistants, services, and other people without any voice, without opening their mouth, and without externally observable movements, simply by articulating words internally.”
Bone conduction is used to deliver audio feedback to the user, keeping the interface closed-loop and preserving their regular auditory experience. This enables a person to communicate with a computer in a way that they see as wholly internal to themselves, almost like speaking to themselves. The major objective of this initiative is to assist people with speech impairments in communicating, particularly those affected by diseases like multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
On social media, a video of Mr. Kapur using the gadget has gone viral. Mr. Kapur responds to the interviewer’s queries in the video almost immediately and without saying a word. “You have the entire internet in your head,” the interviewer then says.
Kapur has a passion for maths, physics, and the arts, according to MIT. When looking for solutions to problems in the world, he thinks that “are all important to consider not as separate disciplines but as complements.” He is presently researching media arts and sciences at the MIT Media Lab as part of his PhD there.
As per MIT’s website, “Arnav has an extensive list of accomplishments, with inventions that include a 3D printable drone, a new platform to measure gene expressions at large scale, and a device called Drishti that helps to rehabilitate the visually impaired. He has also worked on a lunar rover that is intended to land on the moon and relay pictures back to Earth. In addition, Arnav co-developed a new age art installation that has been on display at the Tate Modern in London and at the alt-AI conference in New York.” Arnav Kapur was also featured in TIME’s 100 Best Inventions of 2020.
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