Slashdot Mirror
That's Using Your Head
broKenfoLd writes "In an earlier post, we looked at the future of Matrix-esque control over computers. In that article, monkeys got to play the games. Today at UW in Madison, WI, it's the humans who are playing video games just by thinking about it. While this is cool for us power gamers, it has many more impressive applications, including limb replacement."
At first I thought it was a dupe from this, but the article did mention - "Last month, researchers at Brown University reported on the technology's success in a 25-year-old quadriplegic from Massachusetts who was able to read e-mail, play video games, turn on lights, and change channels or adjust the volume on a TV."
The final comment was "This is a significant development", but in what way?
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
But the gamer side of me is telling me "where the hell do I sign up, I'm grabbing my car keys as I type this."
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
When this is refined it can change the way games are played in general. No longer will games be about who has the best hand-eye coordination. Rather they will be about who can think the smartest and fastest. We may end up calling any form of gaming that requires movement or manipulation of physical controls old-school.
This can't be allowed to reach the mainstream. I like using a mouse and keyboard for my FPS games. You see, when I get tagged 27 times by the same guy, have negative experience and my only kills are to my teammates, I like to have something to blame. I have gotten quite good at it.
For example: Spilled Dew on my keyboard. Darn kid dropped my mouse and there is the rollers don't quite work right. Or my favorite: holographic mouse pad wreaks havoc on my optical mouse.
Don't get me wrong... I can come up with lots of excuses. But yelling about lag only works for so long. Bad monitor? Maybe... but not as good as a story about Mountain Dew.
Heed my warning. Just say 'no' to gadgets implanted into your brain.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
I hate double posting but it just occured to me that I need to make an obligatory reference to the ramifacations of these developments in terms of malicious applications. Think about a computer with a virus and then attaching that directly to your brain. Scary.
... my head asplode.
-- I prefer the term "karma escort."
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/1 3/2127206&tid=191&tid=14
some dude can open email, watch TV, and play pong with his brain.
Le français vous intéresse?
Screw limb replacement. I want limb addition!
A Multiplayer Strategy Game for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux
If they were able to figure out a sufficient amount of what a person's brain activity meant (which is exactly what they seem to be trying to do), and if they could hook that up to some sort of wireless transmitter (should be a piece of cake), it could be used for basic telepathic capabilities. Imagine hooking it up to an FM transmitter, even with just a 6' range - you could come through the radio of the car next to you. Dirty.
Seriously though, an implant that could do this would make telepathy somewhat of a reality. How cool is that?
putfwd.com - 1GB Free file storage with a twist
Jet Li and I fought a battle in our minds. I won.
This issue brings harshly to light the ethical problems inherent in all scientific advancement. Clearly this technology can be put to excellent use to restore mobility to paraplegics, or to allow those of us who were nicknamed "Twitches" in high school to improve our success in Counterstrike: Source.
That said, this technology could also be used for less noble goals; while it says nothing about direct brain control via the implant, and indeed I feel that that would be difficult at best, perhaps even impossible, there are other questionable deeds that could be accomplished with such a device.
Certainly it will make warfare much quicker, and mass-destruction much easier; it has the capacity to lend a remote-control, push-button effect to war that was previously limited to such weaponry as ICBM's. Imagine soldiers in tanks who no longer see enemy soldiers, but just blips on a screen that they manipulate and shoot without any physical interaction! or "suicide bombers" who directly drive bomb-laden delivery trucks into buildings with their brains from over a DSL connection.
It shall be interesting to see where this technology goes.
---
she won't let you fly, but she might let you sing
"Plus, then the lights flashed, he turned evil, and we had to shoot him in the head with a plasma gun."
Oh yeah, free ipods good http://www.freeipods.com/?r=12669514/
should turn up soon then too, no?
Brain surgery to play video games better?
/Billy hurls himself down stairs
"Please Mom!"
"No Billy. That system is designed for paralyzed people not so you can play video games better"
Checkmate
(Score: -1, Star Trek Obscure)
"While this is cool for us power gamers, it has many more impressive applications..."
:-)
No, it doesn't.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
from the article:
As part of that surgery, a 2-inch by 3-inch section of her skull had to be temporarily removed and electrodes implanted to pinpoint where the seizures were coming from. Then, a tiny portion of her brain was removed.
The surgery went well, and Hannibal Malmquist who was seen tucking into a freshly prepared piece of fried meat said she no longer suffers from seizures.
liqbase
Similar stuff been covered before in:
Brain Controlled Computing a Reality
Playing Games With One's Brainwaves
Brain Chip Approved For Paralysis Research
Brain Controlled Tightrope Video Game Shown
So "what's new"? Is it a new technique this time, has major progress been made? If so, what's the big difference compared to the previous articles?
Think about THAT.
"They also are working on developing new electrodes that emit drugs that tone down the inflammation that comes from introducing a foreign object into the brain." This statement is medically interesting in the sense that the human immunoresponse to objects it doesn't recognize - e.g. antibody / antigen reaction. Not to mention that introducing even the slightest foreign object in the subarachnoid space (the space between the skull and the brain itself) is of fatal importance. At one point we have to wonder and assume that technology will eventually make all of this possible but will we maintain our "humanity" or will we undergo some change ala Caption Picard and the Borg - ?
... if music be fruit of love, play on
Combine the unsurpassed parallel processing capability of our brain with speed of sequential execution of an even average home pc, and who knows what can happen. This is what you read about in sci-fi, yet it's already on our door steps. (Mind you it's in infant stage, but nonetheless.) Next thing you know faculties of Math/Science/etc. will cease to exist and instead the parents will pick if they want the latest copy of Mathematica or Maple installed in their childs brain ;)
I've been thinking about games ever since I was born...
*puzzled*
Apple built a platform for their ideas, Google built one for everyone's.
"You mean you have to use your hands? That's like a baby's toy!"
But you are old, right?
Screw cameras and blue screens, jut plug your brain into the PC and control the character directly. Seriously if this was even remotely possible the very first thing I'd do is make an architecture for broadcasting animations to other players in a MMORPG. First step on the way to the matrix. Of course, this isn't possible and it's larly stupid to even bother thinking about it.
How we know is more important than what we know.
This kind of subject has been talked about very much lately. I appreciate that, but i'm kind of disappointed at the way the subject is handled in general. Why not discuss technical issues? How are brain patterns read? EM signals surely, so how about talking about the probes that are used? And about the signals, surely there must be some interresting stuff to discuss about fuzzy recognition here... Guys, what can i say, we're supposed to be talking about our brains and the way they work, and all i find is some kids discussing 'applications' for something they're not really willing to understand. This is NOT the marketing dept!!! Where are old time nerds? Worse, i find some 'ethical' rethorist wrecking the fun... This is not litterature, this is science, may the heretics burn! Oh, before i go, i would like to insult people who think brain control applications are two-way systems. Terrorized geeks are worth nothing, the price for greater science is never too great! (please, repliers, dont discuss my mail, discuss the hardware)
Why stop at limbs? Why not bodies? I want to be a hive mind. Just requires a little extra wireless tech and probably a vicious learning curve.
These kinds of experiments in mind communication probably should be classified as top secret. Imagine what the Chinese would do if they perfected mind-to-mind communication. Do the words "mental rape" or "mental torture" suggest anything?
I could imagine a scenario where a Tibetan nun is arrested by the Chinese. She knows the whereabouts of the new Dalai Lama, and the Chinese hook her up to the mind of a Chinese colonel. The colonel then mentally rapes and tortures her until she yields the requested information.
Scary stuff.
Does anyone know if any group is doing research on using input devices for your brain from a computer? In other words, a way of sending information back into your brain so that you could know it, hear it, visually see it or feel it?
The Matrix is cool but here's a the rub. Neo, Trinity, Morpheus and all the rest were born in the matrix. They learnt to control their virtual bodies as they grew up. Even if the machines got it into their silicon minds to hook up one of the children of Zion it would take years for him to learn how to control his virtual body, if he ever did. We are children of Zion, and should we ever get enough electrodes implanted into our brains it will also take us years to learn how to control our virtual bodies.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Just great...now when my Halo2 scores are still:
Kills/Killed
2/25
Instead of listening to weedsmoker36 pop off I'll now get to hear chest thumping chimps.
How awesome, I was about to post the same thing.
Well, the next step would be to eliminate the computer (used for processing the brain signals) and use an ASIC to perform the required signal processing. The ramifications of this, as the article notes are endless. Ethical questions do exist, but we will find a way to answer them (and I don't mean in a Stem-Cell kind of way...)
Until some idiot does the first: ping -f /medula
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=131796 &cid=11004920 test
... if music be fruit of love, play on
...I think I'll stick to the above for the time being.
This technology is going to advance really fast...
:P
When they get it to the PRON stage of testing
This is the reason I am upset with the direction of the US. In nearly any other developed country, science versus religion isn't even an argument anymore. It makes me ill when people talk about "playing God." Please, wake me when He shows up. For now, the only person who has done anything revolutionary (beyond personal support) for the crippled are scientists, doctors, and other people who work instead of pray.
Consider the excellent work that has been done into Cochlear implants. Basically an entire section of the brain (that which deals with sound processing) is replaced with a nice little pretrained neural network on a chip. The chip literally simulates the way that piece of the brain works and converts data from a microphone into neural impulses. Now I don't know about you, but I can't sing worth a damn. When I sing in my head it all sounds great but as soon as I open my mouth.. well, dogs sing better than me. What would happen if we were to monitor the signals coming into (from the brain) the sound processing unit as well as simulating the signals going out from it (to the brain). When I sing a song in my head would my sound processing unit be able to pick it up? Could it play it for others to hear, and would it sound any better than what comes out of my mouth?
How we know is more important than what we know.
I don't know if this is quite what you meant, but this story was about a device that allowed you to gain or regain senses by putting a pad in your mouth. While you can recieve the signals to other parts of the body, they found that the tounge was the most receptive.
It isn't entirely input from a computer, but I don't see why the signals couldn't be generated artificially and sent to a device like this.
... of a form of interacting with members of the opposite sex over the internet.
:P
The pr0n industry is gonna love that.
They'll call it the Tele-G-Stick
See my art -> http://herbevore.deviantart.com
It's simply detecting impulses from your brain and using them to control a computer. It's not going to upload a virus into your brain people...
Several people are worried that this technology would be horrible. Many people are citing Forbidden Planet.
But, those worries are mis-placed. Forbidden Planet isn't going to happen.
It goes like this: We're going to develop suppressors technology.
Think about a gun for the moment: A gun has a safety. You have to undo the safety, before the gun will fire.
We all have many systems in our lives that prevent us from messing up. Credit card limits, speech and action suppressors in our brains, yadda yadda yadda.
As we develop machines that respond to thought, we will also develop machines that suppress our newfound "actions." We will limit actions that are particularly dangerous. We will limit actions that come from careless thoughts.
There may be things where: You have to solve a small puzzle, before the action will carry out. We may have things where: If you aren't being attentive, then the action won't execute.
AOL.
Dunno how it's connected to the "Forbidden Planet," but the development is 1:1 what is described in the "Dogfight" by William Gibson.
My other Beowulf cluster is... er...
This got me thinking, once you're dealing with the brain directly and not hearing, smell, touch, tase, vision, you could add senses in the same way modders currently add levels or features to games.
I think the best application would be the ability to wire your brain directly into another person's to express ideas without waiting for our mouths to do the work. There is a gob of tissue that connects the left and right sides of the brain that when cut leads to all sorts of weird problems.
If we can borrow the right side of someones brain for an art school assignment then wouldn't humanity start to look a lot like open source software? We own our brains now, they're proprietary. What happens when we connect a bunch together? What happens to "self"? Are we the final Beowulf joke?
What if Digg added local news and a Slashdot inspired comment karma system? ---
http://houndwire.com
Brain Fart.
Sounds like the borg, it may eventually be used for less noble purposes
In soviet russia, computers control you.
As the electrodes are not targeting any particular region, as is evidenced by the subject's description of "scrinching up" and "thinking about screaming" as methods of controlling the paddle, there is no reason why they should be buried in the brain rather than adhered to the surface. Don't hold me to this as I am not qualified to make these assumptions, but I do not believe that this is particularly significant or new achievement (except that it is an extension of the previous one without fault). Until they create extremely sensitive electrodes that attach to the scalp (very, very unlikely given skin movement and interference), this still seems like quite stretch for regular patients - and an extreme one for the rest.
Maybe they should try other, less direct, interfaces - like the tongue ("Activation of visual cortex by electrotactile stimulation of the tongue in early-blind subjects").
interesting as someone through that we would need to class, as tones of electronic doc would feed into your brain.
how about making backup of your life into several TB harddisk?
or how about programming a ultra fast computer with application which simulate responses the same way as you?
or, put it further, will there be a day that we can backup our mind and soul and reboot yourself in truely inorganic form?
By that day, will it be possible to be 'teleported' to different planet, simply sending you 'life and soul.zip' to a different clone machine via planetary communication link?
And, by that day, what is the definition of human and machine?
btw, will this be a movie plot of an upcomming blockbuster?
Any volunteers?
pooling a group of brains together into a grid computing type environment, where people share resources that aren't currently being used. Like, if I'm taking a test, and I need more cognitive power to enhance my score, I can wire myself into the grid of brain power, take the resources I need, and ace the test. Of course, then there would be issues of trust, as some brains hooked up to the grid could provide me with false results. :(
How about playing games while you pee?
Linus announces that Linux has been ported to a new architecture - the human brain. Network connectivity graciously supplied by the people over at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
"it's not about aptitude, it's the way you're viewed" - Galinda
with an artificial silicon breast, doesn't it? ;]
You can't handle the truth.
Next they'll want to read my mind...How does one stay private these days?
That's the point - if. Even though subjects would still have to think about everything from puppies to chain guns just to get the paddle to move, the results might be far less consistent for two reasons:
Electrodes on the scalp are, by definition, less precise than those implanted into or on top of the brain. When on the scalp, the signal received is from a larger area. Due to this, the thought processes involved might be too general - individual actions and thoughts might step on eachothers toes, so to speak. Although some devices utilize electrodes on the scalp as biofeedback sensors, I doubt it could be so targeted as to move a prosthetic arm. Remember, and this is a BIG overvsimplication, it would take more radical differences in thought to achieve specific movements, as anything less might result in an unintended combination of different inputs
The other concern is interference. I know that I once had difficulty with a remotely operated vehicle because of a play production in the neighboring room (think stagelights). I don't want to imagine what a similar situation would do to somebody with a prosthetic limb (think Dr. Strangelove).
Mind/Machine Interface
The Warrior's bland acronym, MMI, obscures the true horror of this monstrosity. Its inventors promise a new era of genius, but meanwhile unscrupulous power brokers use its forcible installation to violate the sanctity of unwilling human minds. They are creating their own private army of demons.
Commissioner Pravin Lal, "Report on Human Rights"
"I think, and my thoughts cross the barrier into the synapses of the machine, just as the good doctor intended. But what I cannot shake, and what hints at things to come, is that thoughts cross back. In my dreams, the sensibility of the machine invades the periphery of my consciousness: dark, rigid, cold, alien. Evolution is at work here,
but just what is evolving remains to be seen."
-- Commissioner Pravin Lal,
"Man and Machine"
For example: Spilled Dew on my keyboard.
I better like the classical: my dog ate it!
The huge mechanical arm thing that Batou ripped off of the Yakuza guy could very easily become a reality with this technology and fuel cells. That is something we may have to worry about. That said, I still think that helping disabled people would still be worth it, no matter what the cons may be.
Well, even though the sections in the brain which they tap are not exactly understood (or even the brain itself), and they cannot match the idea of moving a bar with a electrical impulse on an electrode, I think it will really help for persons to have some of those switches even if they have to do strange thing to activate them. For example, a quadraplegic could operate a TV, suply his own medicine, his own food, and call an alarm if something happens, that could be really great for some people, you could leave your wheelchaired mother in for at least two hours to go to dinner with your wife even if you didn't find a nurse available at friday nigth.
One word: viruses.
I realize what a significant development this technology is, but I still do not see what this particular research added to the field's canon of knowledge.
"brains over brawn."
But i've read theories that we used to have a form of telepathy that predated language. The theory was basically that parts of our frontal lobe seem pretty useless now and never show much activity, these are an evolutionary leftover (tailbone apendix etc). It was a thing like hive insects have, basic concepts, someone spots a predator, the whole tribe is warned by a feeling, possibly the same for finding food etc. This fell by the wayside as we developed language and it was more effective to shout "tiger" which specifically identified the threat and gave a direction of the threat rather than a general sense of a threat.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
I think you are dead on about the productivity boost this could have. The simple invention of e-mail caused an industrial boom. Imagine combining a non-invasive cap and a little wireless networking action. Even if they could only get output from your head, the productivity boost would be massive if you could get fine enough control to write. Simply blanket a company with a wireless network, give everyone a thinking cap, and sit back and watch productivity soar.
Walk up to a screen which needs some fields filled in, like an invoice, and think the input in. While you are talking with someone, be jotting down notes without twitching a muscle. Think about the data or instructions you need and have it pop up on your PDA. When you need to bang out a report, type the words as fast as you can think them.
I personally think it would cause a revolution in technology and productivity. Imagine the environment responding to people's thoughts instead of something kludgy like movement sensors. Lights turn as you think them on. Your coffee pot starts up in the morning the second you think it to.
You might even be talking about something as revolutionary as a whole new human skill, like writing. It might be that using this near telepathic ability requires a skill that needs to be learned. Really skilled thinkers might have the ability to act as super computers for automation. Any idiot might be able to turn on lights, but a truly skilled thinker might be able to perform surgery with finely controlled robotic arms, or perform microscope work and manipulation at electron microscope magnification levels.
It might even be a way to get around computer and programming limitations. A computer might have a rough time balancing and operating a military robot built to imitate human movements and mobility, but I bet a skilled thinker with a pair of VR glasses and a lot of training could do it with ease.
The possibilities are endless. If something as mundane as e-mail can revolutionize the business world (and e-mail DID revolutions the business world), imagine what this sort of stuff could do.
...imagine a Beowulf Cluster of these things!
Seriously though, get a few brains hooked up and you'd have a fair amount of grunt.
We could even network everyone and create a 'hive mind', like the cranium rats did in Planescape Torment.
You have to drag the machine into the trash.
Can a mouse control your hand? No. Can a racing petal control your foot? No. Can a computer programmed to interpret your brain waves control your brain? No. It's an INPUT device, not an output device.
Tell you what. The day that a hacker makes real with the "Your monitor is now a camera, look at the monkey" joke, then I'll worry about my brain-controlled computer uploading newdotnet into my head.
Oh, and on a side note, for those of you who are worried that you'll be beaten by CS opponents who are moving at the speed of thought, I ask you to concider just how fast the average CS d00d actually thinks.
UTF-8: There and Back Again
With electrodes implanted directly on their brains, two Madison patients were able to control a computer cursor and play a basic video game just by thinking about it.
I don't need no implants to play solitarie!
The man, a construction worker in his late 30s, quickly learned to play a modified version of Pong, said Justin Williams, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering and neurosurgery at UW.
"He was able to play it just as well as having a joystick in his hand," Williams said.
Ah I tried to play pong with the Atari joysticks and it was hard. I take it he doesn't play it very well. It's much easier to play with those pong paddles I bought for my Atari. Hey wait I can't use them on any other games!! Everyone boycott the Atari 2600!!!
Have you metaroderated recently?
1. Install WiFi into Head 2. Enter 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire' 3. Profit!
Put a packet logger on the connection and see if the implants say "Eeeeewwwww".
Information wants to be anthropomorphized!
I grew up (mostly) before there were personal computers available.
I didn't learn how to program in C until I was over 30 years old... yet, I can program a hell of a lot better than most of the kids who "grew up with computers".
The people who enjoy learning new things and who like a mental challenge will always have an advantage over most people (who don't like to learn anything that's either difficult or different from what they're used to).
If, or rather when, they invent computer-brain interfaces, I have no doubt that I'll pick it up quicker than someone who's got many decades less experience at.. um.. anything.
All the stories about people who can't learn new technology, and stories about "old" people whose digital clocks on their VCRs still blink "12:00"... those stories are basically about stupid people who don't like to learn.
Do you really think that some 10-year-old who was born into a world with computer-brain interfaces is gonna be able to *out-think* a forty or fifty-year-old?
Only if the forty-year-old is an idiot.
Um... they tried that in a book by Bruce Sterling called "Vacuum Flowers".
The producers of Star Trek rather blatently copied the resulting hive-mind concept from that book and tweaked it slightly to become "The Borg".
However, in the book, it was called "Earth".
Not a collective. A single organism, with several billion cells.
This was considered "a bad thing".
First, maintaining entangled particles is rather difficult in practice. Entanglement happens when the properties of two particles are interrelated, although the specific values are not. For example, the decay of a radioactive atom might release two photons with correlated polarizations, though you don't know which way each photon is polarized. You can then perform certain operations to change the photon's polarization, and those changes will be reflected in the entangled photon's polarization, and when you measure the polarization of one, the other's is guaranteed to correspond, based on how they were emitted.
However, once you measure the polarization, and know both values, the two photons are no longer entangled and any changes to one's polarization will no longer affect the other. There are also any number of other operations that will cause the particles to no longer be entangled with one another, such as giving a new, known value to the entangled property. For instance, if you have two particles whose spin is correlated (say they're both equal), and take one and cause it to have spin +1/2, that doesn't necessarily cause the other particle to have spin +1/2. You need to do things like changing +1/2 to -1/2, and vice versa, which don't collapse the uncertainty of the system.
The actual class of operations that preserves entanglement is relatively limited compared to the total number of operations possible (I believe the ones that can preserve entanglement are unitary reversible operators, or some such, which are of specific interest to quantum computing, which makes lots of use of entanglement).
In other words, the probability that two particles at either end of your fingernail would be entangled is pretty small, let alone in two separate human beings. There are two many other particles to bump into, and that tends to destroy entanglement.
Furthermore, I'd add that even in the quantum teleportation case, where correlated states change instantaneously, to decipher the instantaneously transferred state requires that the people communicating transmit information to one another that must be sent at the speed of light or less. It works like this:
So even though information is theoretically transferred faster than light, that information cannot be deciphered without sending other information slower than/at the speed of light, so in practice you cannot transmit data faster than the speed of light would allow.
I realize my explanations may have been confusing, but unfortunately I struggle with some of the concepts myself, so it's difficult for me to explain them. However, if you learn a little more about quantum mechanics, I think it'll become clear that a lot of the ideas in your post aren't really possible (at least, as far as our current understanding of quantum mechanics goes).
I've come for the woman, and your head.
The only thing I use my limbs for is playing video games.
I just did. I'm such a redundant idiot.
It heard about this kind of experiments being successfully done years ago. And then it was also about simple games, like moving a pad of some kind. Maybe this time, news agencies will remember they reported about it though, although I don't expect them to. In a few years, we'll probably see "significant advancements" when they play Tetris directly via a brain even if that's just three commands, rotate, left, right. :-P
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
I'm suprised no one had mentioned "Red Dwarf: Better Than Life"...you should all turn in your nerd badges right now.
This is the idea put forth in the scifi The Golden Age by John C Wright. It is a really, really recommended read, and his ideas and visions are really mind-boggling.
How can lag be an excuse?
...
Oh, you mean network lag
The virtual world of the Matrix would actually work in reverse of this "learning theory". Instead of trying to have the User emulate actions/resposes by learning how to control them, the world itself takes the actual brain signals produced for a certain actions, and creates an appropriate biofeedback result. In essence, this extreme virtual reality must create an environment that is ultimately "real" to the subject; any failure lies not in the subject's inability to manipulate his/her virtual self, but in the inherent non-believeability of the virtual world. Hence, the first version of the Matrix, a virtual paradise, was rejected by the human brain. Not "imperfect" enough to fool "us" (yet).
There have been lots of reports in the last 5 months about the control of digital systems through direct brainwave interpretation--email, video games, prosthetics, etc. The Air Force and Duke U. have had monkeys flying flight simulators by thought for 1-2 yrs now. Their work has been the result of interpretation of understood wave patterns for arm and hand movement, and not requiring the "training" the UW subjects needed for playing pong. The target system would mimic a mechanical response the subject is already familiar i.e. arm hand movement.
p lant-Read10nov03.htm
But this success so far has only been acheived intrusively, by putting a hole in the subject's head and directly accessing the brain to capture EM activity. The real problem now is interpretting the brainactivity through the skull, scalp and hair. With the many amputies coming back from war, a great deal of effort is being made to develop these type of systems for control of prosthetic limbs in hope of improving quality of life for these soldiers...but to do it without putting more holes in their heads. The goal is to have such a system functioning within the next year or two.
http://www.angelfire.com/az3/newzone/mku.html
http://www.actlab.utexas.edu/~magsig/pinecone.htm
http://www.mindfully.org/Technology/2003/Brain-Im
This stuff is reall amazing. I think of what they are doing now as what computing was in the 40s and 50s. The next 20-50 years we are going to see some pretty amazing stuff going on.
If now is the "digital age" I'd say fifty years from now will be the "bio age" or some other stupid buzz phrase like that. Regardless it will be really interesting to see what develops. Also it will be a lot less clear-cut ethically and morally than the digital revolution. Machines are one thing, but playing around with genes and biomechanical interfaces are in a totally different realm.
Still what will be able to be done is going to change a lot of people's lives.
Think of taking somebody like Steven Hawkings and plugging his brain into a computer and put him in one of these (no, not the trumpet robot...scroll down halfway).
Pong today...Robot "leg-chairs" and voice generation tomorrow. The real boon will be when they figure out how to produce tactile feebback to accompany the control mechanisms.
For someone with a "locked-in" syndrome like ALS this would do wonders.
Almost makes me want to go do a CS/Neuroscience PhD or something like that after I finish med school. Well...almost, but I think I'll stick to the straight doctoring. I'm 7 years from now when I get done I won't want to go anywhere near school for the rest of my life!
Isnt that essentially what they did to Sharon Apple in Macross Plus?
That I'm really in a Q3A deathmatch rather than sitting idle at my desk? Or do I have to take a mind scan every morning when I come in?
Tyranny isn't the worst enemy of a democracy. Cynicism is.
Hmmm this has possibilities...
Yes boss, I'm checking the numbers... Stupid boss.
WHAT?
Oh, did I think that loud? Hey look at that babe...
WHAT?
ARGH! Somebody shut this off!!!!
Awesome! Now I get to mention that the kid who says that line is none other than Elijah Wood.
Use Ctrl-C instead of ESC in Vim!
Well, it's a shame (that 'we wont get to see much in the way of the exact how's and why's of the way that these things work')! Moreover, even if i tend to agreed with you on the sensitivity of intellectual property issues here, i still think there's a part of the 'technical blight' that comes from the non-willingness of some people to discuss the 'how's and why's'. Much has been published already, it's just hard to fumble through all the speculation. I'm sure http://www.digitaldissertations.com/ or maybe http://www.ieeexplore.com/ carry something interresting about this (sorry, i guess most 'scientific' papers database require membership).