Tan Le is the founder & CEO of Emotiv, a bioinformatics company that's working on identifying biomarkers for mental and other neurological conditions using electroencephalography (EEG).

Why you should listen

Tan Le is the co-founder and president of Emotiv. Before this, she headed a firm that worked on a new form of remote control that uses brainwaves to control digital devices and digital media. It's long been a dream to bypass the mechanical (mouse, keyboard, clicker) and have our digital devices respond directly to what we think. Emotiv's EPOC headset uses 16 sensors to listen to activity across the entire brain. Software "learns" what each user's brain activity looks like when one, for instance, imagines a left turn or a jump.

Le herself has an extraordinary story -- a refugee from Vietnam at age 4, she entered college at 16 and has since become a vital young leader in her home country of Australia.

What others say

“We're looking at the tip of the iceberg. We're looking at the computer of the '70s. Everybody knows this is going to be awesome in the future and do a lot of things.” — Nam Do, cofounder of Emotiv

Tan Le’s TED talks

More news and ideas from Tan Le

Technology

When flying robots meet mind control

October 1, 2012

Everything is a remix, Kirby Ferguson told us at TEDGlobal 2012, explaining that the essence of creativity is the welding together of others’ ideas to form something new. We couldn’t help but think of this when we saw an article on TheVerge.com about researchers at Zhejiang Univeristy’s CCNT lab who have combined brainwave technology and airborne robotics […]

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A headset that reads your brainwaves: Tan Le on TED.com

July 22, 2010

Tan Le’s astonishing new computer interface reads its user’s brainwaves, making it possible to control virtual objects, and even physical electronics, with mere thoughts (and a little concentration). She demos the headset, and talks about its far-reaching applications. (Recorded at TEDGlobal 2010, July 2010 in Oxford, UK. Duration: 10:38) Watch Tan Le’s talk on TED.com, […]

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