Humanistic Intelligence & ThoughtCam Project

Humanistic Intelligence and the ThoughtCam Project By Professor Steve Mann, Daniel Chen & Rubaiyat Islam		Professor Steve Mann Steve Mann, inventor of WearComp and EyeTap(reality mediator) system, is currently a faculty member at University of Toronto, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Dr. Mann has been working on his WearComp invention for more than 20 years dating back to his high school days in the 1970s. He brought his inventions and ideas to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1991, and is considered to have brought the seed that later become the MIT Wearable Computing Project. He also built the world's first covert fully functional WearComp with display and camera concealed in ordinary eyeglasses in 1995, for the creation of his award winning documentary ShootingBack. He received his PhD degree from MIT in 1997 in the new field he had initiated. He is also inventor of the chirplet transform, a new mathematical framework for signal processing. Mann was both the founder and the Publications Chair of the first IEEE International Symposium on Wearable Computing (ISWC97). He also chaired the first Special Issue on Wearable Computing in Personal Technologies Journal, and has given numerous Keynote Addresses on the subject, including the Keynote at the first International Conference on Wearable Computing , the Keynote at the Virtual Reality conference, and the Keynote at the McLuhan Conference on Culture and Technology, on the subject of Privacy issues and Wearable Computers. Daniel Chen and Rubaiyat Islam Daniel Chen and Rubaiyat Islam are students from the University of Toronto's Engineering Science program. Daniel is currently in the Biomedical-Electrical Engineering option of the program, while Rubaiyat is in the Electrical Engineering Option. They have taken a keen interest in implementing the brain wave control of the WearComp / EyeTap system and currently working with the ThoughtCam group.
The ThoughtCam project uses biofeedback technology provided by Thought Technology Inc. to create a greater synergy between the user and the EyeTap wearable computer system. The fact that the WearComp / EyeTap apparatus is worn underneath clothing facilitates direct contact with the body, and thus encourages futher new forms of intelligent signal processing.

Humanistic Intelligence (HI) is a signal processing framework in which the processing apparatus (such as a computer) is inextricably intertwined with the natural capabilities of our human body and mind, working in synergy with the human user rather than as a separate entity. Instead of trying to emulate human intelligence (as is the case in Artificial Intelligence), HI recognizes that the human brain is itself an excellent but often overlooked processor, and hence suggests a new goal for signal processing hardware: to assist and empower, rather than replace or emulate, human intelligence. The emphasis of Professor Steve Mann's research is on personal imaging applications of HI, such as effortlessly capturing our day-to-day experiences, helping us remember and see better, providing us with personal safety through crime reduction, and facilitating new forms of communication through collective connected humanistic intelligence. Thus it may be worn continuously during all facets of ordinary day-to-day living, so that, through long-term adaptation, it begins to function as a true extension of the mind and body.