Mind reading computers by 2020

Mind reading

Computers will be able to read your thoughts by 2020, according to a senior executive from Intel.

Just Rattner, chief technology officer (CTO) of the chipmaker, claimed whilst work was still in early stages, momentum was growing and research was well on its way to providing the technology within the next ten years.

"The ultimate form of sensing would be the direct understanding of human thought by machines [and] it is possible," he said.

"IDF 2020 seems like a reasonable stop for that."

Rattner made the claim during his keynote speech at this year's IDF conference in San Francisco, whilst discussing the future of context aware computing.

The idea is to use a number of different sensing methods from GPS tracking to heart rate monitoring to learn more about a user and enable devices to be tailored to their needs.

"We think context aware computing is going to change how we interact with devices today," said Rattner. "Future devices will constantly learn about you... they will probably even know how you are feeling, where you are and more importantly where you are going."

He claimed the research would be a driver for Intel's architecture in the future, as technology needed to be able to handle the demands of context aware devices.

However, he conceded there was no business plan as yet to get devices onto the market.

Jennifer Scott

Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.

Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.