Japan Media Review has reported on an interesting tactic currently being emplyoed by national television broadcaster NHK in Japan. In the wake of a series of scandals at NHK, scores of Japanese households have refused to pay their annual dues to the public broadcaster. Although it’s illegal not to pay if a household owns a television, there is no legal recourse for NHK to take against non-payers.

So, NHK has decided to invite members of the public to special screenings of childrens’ television programs. Those who attend will have their contact information checked against a list to see whether or not they’ve been keeping up on their NHK payments. Certainly, tremendous pressure will be placed on those who haven’t paid to cough up (in front of their children and hundreds of other adults). Embarassment always helps people come clean…

Maybe there will be some bloggers in that group of non-payers. The Wall Street Journal claims, “The greatest hope of most Web amateurs is to cross over into “old media” outlets like TV networks and Hollywood.” In Japan, that might prove a bit more difficult, since NHK is apparently set to shed 10% of its workforce.

Cyberkinetics is working on the kind of software that will allow our brains to control our computers. In their ‘Business 2.0′ online department, cnn.com touts that this technology will render keyboards and mice as, “medieval-style torture devices for the wrists.“

As someone who works with digital design, I can see this being huge for a company like Adobe. Imagine being able to create shapes by thinking about them, being able to adjust photos by thinking of the changes or even simply having less lag time between the imagined graphic concept and the digital representation. Graphic designers charging by the hour might finally be forced to change to a project-based compensation system.

What would you market as being mind-controllable? How could mind-control based applications improve your workflow?