Theorist talks on mind reading

Peter Winkler wants you to guess what he's thinking. Winkler, a member of the Mathematics Research Center at AT&T; Bell Labs, has undertaken an off-beat research endeavor. He is trying to develop ways for people to guess what is on someone else's mind without being told explicitly. Sound confusing? Just envision two friends gossiping about a third person without naming him directly. The friends may drop hints to make sure they are referring to the same person. At the Dining Philosophers computer society function Tuesday, Winkler discussed this rather unusual research with more than 60 students in a speech entitled "Comparison without Disclosure." In his speech, Winkler explained the real-world applications of secure data comparison, such as bargaining sessions, politics and an "adult game called 'Are You Thinking What I'm Thinking.' " Winkler teamed up with IBM official Ron Fagin and Moni Naor of the Weizmann Institute for this study. Ironically, all three researchers came up with the subject of the study without having consulted with each other. Audience members said they appreciated the intellectual effort exerted by Winkler to study his idea. "It was interesting to see how he put so much time into the problem," College junior Carter Vance said. "He used math in applications that were off the wall." Winkler then spoke about a machine he had patented, called an Electronic Trusted Party. If two people are attempting to ascertain whether they are thinking of the same information, they each enter the data into the ETP. It then tells whether the entries match. Winkler said, though, that he is having trouble selling his invention to manufacturing companies. "I wish I could tell you that I've become a millionaire, but I'm still trying," he said. Vance said he thought the machine may have some limited applications in the real world. "The invention is something he believes is useful," Vance said. "It solves problems that seem to arise in his experience." Winkler is also the inventor of "cryptological methods" for playing bridge, which have now been declared illegal for tournament play in North America, according to College and Engineering junior Raj Iyer, the president of the Dining Philosophers. Before the speech for the Dining Philosophers, Winkler spoke to Pi Mu Epsilon, the mathematics honor society, in a discussion entitled "Intuition and Probability." "It was fitting that he talked to both math and computer science undergrads," Iyer said, adding that the two departments frequently overlap. The lectures were followed by an informal discussion in the Polar Bear Lounge in the Moore Building.

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