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Brain Chip Approved For Paralysis Research
dalillama writes "The BBC is reporting that tests are underway for the clinical trials of the "Brain Gate" computer chip, placed in the brains of paralysis patients. They hope the chips will map out nerve impulses which are sent to limbs, so that they can then be translated into computer code and sent to future artificial limbs. " Thanks to Robert Brooks for pointing out this closely related piece.
Why cant they just connect the brain to the legs and get the guy moving?
Im thinking in the case where a person JUST lost movement on the legs due to an accident, etc...
Who is this Karma guy and why is he bad ??
"Honey, can you please reboot my dick? I accidently just did the cat. Thanks"
Table-ized A.I.
...when High Times picks it up!
Combine this with the robotic exoskelton legs that MIT(?) just revealed, and we'll have Stephen Hawking in the marathon in no time (a la Onion)
I'd mouth off to John Ashcroft. That's how Bush got his.
WWJD? JWRTFA!
From the article: "The signals will be monitored through wires emerging from the skull, which presents some danger of infection. The company is working on a wireless version"
If they can work out a way to hook it into an 802.11g home network, i'd get one fitted, paralysis or not!
Imagine being able to control devices in the home as easily as controlling a limb. Of course controlling those same devices when drunk would be another matter entirely...
...the porn / spam industry get's a hold of these?
I can't wait until I start receiving the "enhance your member through the powers of bionics!" spam...
I wonder if they are going to have some kind of "reboot" feature in case the hardware starts failing or the software goes haywire. (Insert standard Windows BSOD joke here.) Seriously, though, I'd hate to see somebody's limbs just start moving erratically and without any control. That would be a nightmare.
I don't know how they would actually implement such a feature, but it just seems kinda dangerous to me without it.
When Cyberkinetics was a lab at Brown University, I design an amplifier array for the wireless implant mentioned in the article. The medical possibilities for the research are really pretty interesting, especially once the next generation probe is done. The trouble is that the medical possibilities are icing, and the cake is a control system for the exoskeleton of the soldier of the future... that's right, another fine DARPA technology.
- - - Patent applied for and deliver us from evil
OK, so you start with artificial limbs, move on to military projects with vision, audio, vehicle control, then in 30 years it hits the commercial market.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
We have the technology. We can rebuild him, make him faster, stronger, better...
Whooo chechechechechecheche...
-- the only good thing the French ever did was two chicks at one time
Taking the biological route is humiliating. Where is the innovation?
Surely we must outdo nature by our technology. Otherwise we can never fully escape the nature's trap of evolution by mortaility.
How long before I can use my laptop to hack into my friend's motor control and make him dance?
~~Guildencrantz
Penguin Trivia #46: Animals who are not penguins can only wish they were. -- Chicago Reader 10/15/82
who immediately thinks of a remotely controlled girlfriend with force-feedback? :)
Ray Kurzweil wrote an interesting book about the progression of technology over the next 100 years. Based on his law of accelerating returns, he predicts various events for the next few decades until the Singularity.
The book was published in 2000, and already he'd made quite a few accurate predictions, and many since then have been accurate as well.
no comment
Instead of trying to map out the exact instructions which may change from person to person coudln't you just have an interface that learns the commands of the user via positive feed back?
Hello Cruel World
I'm no expert, and it doesn't mention walking in the article, but I wonder if one will be able to walk using a system like this since the impulses from the nerve endings in the legs will never be sent back into the brain. It's kinda like trying to walk without being able to feel your legs. I doubt I could do it.
My (admittedly limited) understanding of the brain is that it sends an electric impulse to the muscles so why not try to emulate that impulse?
Reverse engineering is the only way at the moment do so at the moment since the Supreme Being hasn't opened the source to the API.
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
While this is interesting and innovative technology, when is it too much? How much further will this go? Not to sound like a tinfoil fashion junkie, but what if this kind of stuff gets put into the wrong hands? Honestly. With companies like Cisco, APC, and others putting hardcoded backdoors into their products, what if someone decided the same was neccessary on a wireless version of this device? Don't get me wrong, new technology is amazing. But IMHO it is something to be feared and respected. Maybe somethings are best never invented. Pacemakers are awesome, but a chip to control muscle functions in the brains of paralysis patients seems a bit frightening. Especially if a wireless version is to emerge. No, it wouldn't be un-wep'ed 802.11b, but nonetheless this, to me is an alert. I don't know anyone personally who is paralyzed, so maybe I don't take this as seriously as others, but I can't see myself having a foreign object implanted into my brain any time soon. Of course extensive testing will be done to ensure that the product is usable for deployed to patients but can you imagine a failure of this? What if it (the chip) becomes uncontrollable for any number of reasons?
while true ; do echo this is my sig; done
He just got Farscape confused with Red Dwarf. Kryton is the servant droid that lives aboard the Red Dwarf with Lister, Rimmer and Cat.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
My question is: What is the bandwidth of the human brain. If we put it into terms of both latency (time before signal hits destination and a result is returned) and pipe size (how much data can we push through at a given time).
Does our bring have a "ping." That is to say, if we had a leg where the nerve receptors has died, but the muscle nerves work (leprosy?), can you tell if it is moving when we want it to, or is the only return signal from the nerves that sense touch?
It would be interesting to see if a wireless connection could handle brain bandwidth. I'd imagine that for the simple operatings such as moving an object etc low bandwidth is required. For a fully pluggable experience (how about integrating touch, hearing, and the optic nerve to pilot a mini-plane) I'd imagine that quite a lot of bandwidth is needed, as well as fairly low latency.
But then again, I was recently at the doctor's doing exercises when I noticed that if I tried to do leg pumps too fast, my leg would be trying to "pull" when at times it should be doing a "push" and so I either get a short stroke or a shutter. Is this the same as a data collision or just lack of reaction speed due to the muscle not being well enough toned (the muscle is degenerated due to being immobilized from a break, but muscle tone is probably already average compared to most people).
mapping the brain could be interesting. especially on boundary conditions like in programming. what happens when the brain dies, what are the last signals it sends out?
Dude, I just pinged your head. Your brain is lagging big time.
You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
This method can get data out of the brain. But, strictly speaking, we've been able to do that for ages (not quite so directly or in a way that you can carry around easily, but still)... It will get a lot more interesting - and potentially dangerous - when we have something that can send info back into the brain, in the form of, say, images added directly to what the eye can see within the brain.
--- Bwah?
Imagine if you could communicate via a wireless connection. This could litterly let you do that.
/target:brain1
If these chips will let people walk again why not communicate with others with a similar chip via a low power network? Instant telepathy, just add water.
This reminds of the premise of Ghost in the Shell. Whats next, Ghost hacking?
fdisk
format brain1:\
copy c:\hackpattern.gz brain1:\
You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
Stephen Hawking Builds Robotic Exoskeleton.
Does it go "RIIIP!" and a chunk of your skin is torn off the side of your head? ;)
Now we need to perfect the genetic technology so that Spider Man can fight him off when he shows up and starts trashing New York.
This is very cool in a sense. I'd love to play around poking things in my brain to see what happens, but what if you break something. Your brain is not a hard drive which you can just reformat and start fresh. You are a sum of your life experiences and that makes you unique. Even the tiny characteristics in your brain makes you unique.
If you get brain damage, the fact is, you are not the same person you were before. Think about frontal lobotomies. You may not know the difference and chances are no one else might notice, but the person you are now will cease to exist if you get braindamage.
Braindamage scares the bejezus out of me, but I'm not about to wear a helmet 24/7. Point is, If they stick something in your brain, there must be SOME damage, if not minimal. This will change who you are. I know my aunt had brain surgery to remove a tumer and she acts VERY differently now.
If you are going to get an implant for no reason at all, consider the risk. For people in which it can mean a better life, great idea.
Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what's right. --Isaac Asimov
You don't "cease" to exist from any sort of brain damage. Do you disappear from a night of drinking? Nerve cells die naturally--do you cease to exist when you get old? But there is a risk. I view the paralyzed as test subjects--if this really does work, I would jump at the chance (as a non-paralyzed person) to do it.
-I am an elective eunuch.