Ever had a hard time concentrating because your devices keep interrupting you with notifications? According to a very cool article over on Popular Science, researchers from Tufts University are working on an app for that!
Yes, seriously:
In the time between when you start and finish reading this article, you might check various social media notifications, gaze at your texts, maybe read another few paragraphs of that article on potatoes you meant to read last night. You might think you’re multitasking when you do that, but your brain is actually just switching quickly between tasks, and that means that you’re probably doing all of them pretty poorly. Now computer scientists from Tufts University are developing a system that detects your brain waves and, if your mind is busy, the software can quiet the frenetic beeping of your devices so you can actually concentrate, according to the New Scientist.
The project is called “Phylter” and it uses functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIS), a measurement of how the blood flows in the brain. It works by attaching a monitor to the user’s forehead with a band, which shoots beams of light into the brain…
The article goes on to describe how Phylter uses machine learning algorithms to figure out which electronic interruptions are actually important to you and lets those come through while blocking others. Check out the full article and links to the research over on the Popular Science website.
Source: Brain-Scanning Software Blocks Your Notifications While You’re Busy on PopSci.com
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