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Non-Invasive Computer Control Through Brainwaves
mikael writes "An article on the BBC website is reporting that U.S. scientists have managed to develop a 'thinking cap' which allows a computer to receive commands from the electrical activity of a person's brain alone. Comprised of 64 electrodes, this cap allowed two users to control a cursor through pure thought alone, rather than through eye movements or other physical gestures." Unlike some previous efforts, this one doesn't require anything to be implanted in your brain.
The work is pretty neat. They put a sock thing on your head and measure your brainwaves. Apparantly not everyone can be trained to use the system. There was a long screening process where they looked for people with brain patterns that they could read. I signed up for the screening but I was never called; I guess they got all the volunteers they needed. My friend went in for the screening; they make you wear the reader thing on your head while you concentrate on a dot moving through a very simple maze. Evenutally you get to try to control the dot; that's as far as my friend reached. I know that eventually they move you up to an actual "Armitron" toy that they wired up to the monitors. It is very cool research.
This stuff isn't geared to replacing your keyboard and mouse. The hook is the promise of developing the technology for better artificial limbs; but think about it. If a disabled person can control their own artificial arm with brainwaves; why not a big crane? Why not a crane on a battleship or out in orbit?
(Jonathan R. Wolpaw and Dennis J. McFarland. Control of a two-dimensional movement signal by a noninvasive brain-computer interface in humans. PNAS published December 7, 2004, 10.1073/pnas.0403504101)
From the methods and diagrams in the article looks like the slower mu oscillations moved the cursor in the horrizontal axis and the vaster beta osicllations moved the cursor in the vertical axis.
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