BBC trials 'mind-control' TV remote

It’s a lazy Sunday afternoon. You’re catching up with your favourite shows on the BBC iPlayer, but you’re just too tired to get up and find the remote control. So why not use your brainwaves to switch programmes instead?

That could one day be possible, following experiments carried out by the BBC to investigate the use of technology that allows people to control their televisions with only their brainwaves.

The mind control technology could ultimately give people with severe disabilities, motor neurone disease or locked in syndrome the ability to control digital media by thought alone, according to Cyrus Saihan, head of business development at BBC Digital.

“For anybody who can’t use standard remote controls for any reason, this technology has the potential to open up this completely new world of digital content that you and I may take for granted,” he said.

The technology could also allow able-bodied people to access TV programmes much more quickly and easily, he said. “This is building on work we have done using voice control on consoles like the Xbox One, for example, to get to content as quickly and easily as possible.”