Transparent: Brain computer interface and social architecture

Figure 1: (Left) A person is sitting at her desk in the office without Transparent. Distractions are visible through transparent windows. (Right) The Transparent system measures the brain activity and changes the window opacity according to the user’s level of focus. Transparent is an office window that varies its opacity in order to help a user maintain focus at work. By changing opacity, the win-dow blocks distractions in the user’s environment while subtly sig-naling the person’s availability to others. The user’s focus is deter-mined via a neuroheadset that passively measures her brain activ-ity through electroencephalography (EEG); the focus of the user is then algorithmically determined and wirelessly communicated to a smart glass module that changes transparency accordingly. Trans-parent explores opportunities to merge brain computer interfaces (BCI) with smart architecture to improve productivity at work.