Unveiled at the Samsung Developer Conference in San Francisco, the new smart TV software being developed under the codename, Project Pontis, “aims to make Samsung’s televisions more accessible for people with physical disabilities like quadriplegia,” reports CNET.
But what Samsung has also achieved in this effort is to create a program that can read human brainwaves to enable the user to carry out basic tasks such as change channels and adjust sound volume with their brains.
Far from being the finished product, the operating system is being developed by Samsung’s research team in partnership with the Center of Neuroprosthetics of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland.
Explaining the idea behind the project, one of the researchers associated with the project, senior scientist, Ricardo Chavarriaga said: “We’re making tech that is more complex, that is more intelligent, but we should not forget this tech is being made to interface with humans… Provide accessibility to people who cannot move or who have extreme limitations on their movements.”
