Coming to your screen: the TV remote that’s all in the mind

A TELEVISION that viewers can control with their brain is being developed by Samsung.

The South Korean tech giant is working on software that could soon be marketed to people with physical disabilities to control electronics without the help of others.

The project, named Pontis, is being undertaken with the help the Center of Neuroprosthetics of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland and Samsung recently unveiled a prototype during its developer conference in San Francisco.

The system uses a Brain Computer Interface (BCI) to connect the viewer with the TV set. The BCI is made up of a headset covered with 64 sensors and an eye-motion tracker.

The headset can record and analyse the electrical signals created when brain cells send messages to one other.

By using data from brainwave samples, scientists can work out how the mind behaves when it has a thought, such as “change the channel”.

Currently, the system uses information from brainwaves and eye movements to remotely control a TV. The team is also working on a version that relies on brain signals alone. The company plans to test a prototype in Swiss hospitals next year.

Earlier this year, a brain-controlled film called The Moment was revealed that records a viewer’s thoughts and changes the story based on their response. Viewers wear a cap that measures tiny electrical signals generated by the firing of neurons in their brain.