Netflix employees have come up with some pretty bizarre inventions for the company's annual Hack Days in the past, such as the takeaway-ordering, light-dimming, phone-silencing 'Netflix and Chill' button back in 2015. But among the latest batch of creative hacks, which includes some Stranger Things-inspired items, comes MindFlix, a way of controlling the streaming service using only your head and your thoughts.
Employees Ben Hands, Sagar Patil, Steve Henderson, and Andy Law put together what is surely the laziest way to control Netflix, all thanks to a Muse headband. As you can see in the video, wearing the EEG (Electroencephalography)-detecting band lets users move through Netflix's menus just by moving their head up and down or side to side.
But the coolest part of MindFlix comes when selecting a movie or TV show to watch. Instead of having to do something overly energetic, like blinking, a user need only to think of the word or action "Play."
If you've ever seen or tried one of these headbands before, you'll know that they don't always work when it comes to "reading" a person's thoughts, but the hack shows what could be possible in the future. And while the MindFlix may never end up in the stores, a similar product may be able to help people who are physically unable to operate a remote.
Netflix does point out that these hacks are unlikely ever to become official offerings from the company. "While we're excited about the creativity and thought put into these hacks, they may never become part of the Netflix product, internal infrastructure, or otherwise be used beyond Hack Day. We are posting them here publicly to share the spirit of the event and our culture of innovation."
Check out the other hacks, including a Picture in Picture mode and a way of donating money from within the app, at the Netflix Hack Day blog post.