Think the Linguistic User Interface is the next step forward in human-machine relations? Maybe. But then again, maybe not. Perhaps we’re poising ourselves to skip a step:

Sitting stone still under a skull cap fitted with a couple dozen electrodes, American scientist Peter Brunner stares at a laptop computer. Without so much as moving a nostril hair, he suddenly begins to compose a message — letter by letter — on a giant screen overhead.

“B-O-N-J-O-U-R” he writes with the power of his mind, much to the amazement of the largely French audience of scientists and curious onlookers gathered at the four-day European Research and Innovation Exhibition in Paris, which opened Thursday.

All we need is a way for computers to write back to the brain and instant messaging will be replaced by electronic telepathy. On a less whimsical note, this kind of interface will eventually open up whole new worlds of capability and independence for the paralyzed and others with disabilites.

(Via Our Technological Future)