It ’s been said that Thomas Edison take nap buckle steel balls in his hand . As he fell gone , his grip would relax , the balls would throw away , and he would jolt awake , hearing a clangorous noise as they hit the floor .
It sound like the bizarre routine of a mad scientist , but it is a proficiency MIT investigator are now trying to recreate , albeit with a piffling more scientific rigor and reliability .
The idea is to induce the transitory period between wakefulness and sleep , which you could reckon of as like the twilight zone between nighttime and twenty-four hour period . Or , as one researcher assign it , a“natural atomisation of consciousness”where you are neither fully conscious nor alone unconscious . The flow is cunning to delimitate – while some people may be able to hold full conversations , others will feel optic and audile hallucinations .
It ’s a State Department scientists call hypnagogia , where many believe we are at our most originative .
To trigger hypnagogia , a team of scientists at MIT Media Lab head by Adam Horowitz have inventedDormio , a machine they claim can literally form the mental object of your dreams . Their findings will be presented at theComputer - Human Interface conferencein Montreal later this week .
" Hypnagogia is characterise by phenomenological unpredictability , distorted perceptual experience of infinite and clock time , loss of sentience of ego , and spontaneous , fluid estimation association , " the researcher say onthe lab ’s website .
" Using Dormio , we are able to influence , extract information from , and hold out hypnagogic microdreams for the first time . "
It ’s worth noting , these microdreams ( or hypnagogic dreams ) are different from lucid dreaming that occur in the REM stage of sleep . Unlike in lucid dreams , where the player is combat-ready , the participant in a hypnagogic dream is passive – though this does n’t signify they can not check the counsel of the pipe dream , even if they do need a little help .
In tests , nap volunteers wore a glove ramp up with raw tracking technology that can monitor muscleman tonicity , heart pace changes , and skin conductance . When the data reveal the sleeper goby has hit hypnagogia , they are softly prod into a more argus-eyed commonwealth and an audio message is played . This audio message is then opine to influence the sleeper ’s hypnagogic dreaming . Once suspended in that state , the audio take them what they are reckon about .
" We base all of our topic indeed dreamed about themes select by experimenter prior to subject sleep , and that active use of hypnagogia with the Dormio system can augment human creativity as measured by tractability , fluency , working out , and originality of persuasion , " the researchersadd .
sound spooky but researchers go for to make the technology cheap , accessible , and well-fixed for all , allowing everyone to enhance their creativity by tapping into this hypnogogic state .
It ’s not useable to the public just yet , however . So for now , we ’ll have to bond to Edison ’s blade balls .
[ H / T : Motherboard ]
