I Will Wear This Headband to Make the Notifications Stop

I look forward to the Internet of Things for no other reason than all of the wacky notifications this imminent world of future devices might send. "That blockage of hair in your shower drain has been unclogged!" my pipes might bellow. "The dog poop that has been slowly decomposing in your backyard is now ready to be spread on your potted herbs!" my Bluetooth connected composter might whisper, rousing me from my sleep.

Which is why it's important we figure out how to reign these notifications in now.

Phylter is the nickname for a piece of software currently under development at Tufts University's computer science department, and it's designed to do just that. According to New Scientist—which spoke with Tufts computer scientist Robert Jacob who is leading the Phylter team—the software is capable of learning when a person is busy, especially focused or concentrating on a task, and unlikely to want to be bothered by pesky, intrusive notifications that can steal one's distraction away.

This approach is only the latest step in work that Jacobs has been pursuing for some time.

"We are using brain input as a way to obtain more information about the user and their context in an effortless and direct way from their brain activity," wrote Jacob on his website, of his interest in mainstream uses for human-computer interaction. "We then use it to adapt the user interface in real time."

A band worn around the head measures changes in blood flow, which can be used to infer either intense concentration or idle daydreaming. With the band on, wearers in Jacob's trials were able to train the software to understand the difference between scenarios where they were okay with being distracted, or would rather be left alone.

Per New Scientist, "The software screens out these low-priority distractions when it senses that you are focused on another, more important task."

The idea that notifications are causing us extreme unrest with their pesky intrusions isn't necessarily a new concept. Most phones and computers now have do-not-disturb functions that can mute or hide notification sounds and messages for a predetermined span of time, and I'm even writing this article right now in a so-called distraction-free writing app, which fills the screen with only my text.

But software that knows, implicitly, when I might not want to be bothered–better, perhaps, than I know myself? Sign me up.