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Monkeys Adapt Robot Arm as Their Own
FiReaNGeL writes "Neurobiologists from the Duke University Medical Center are training monkeys to use their brain signals to control a robotic arm; but they are not just learning to manipulate an external device. Rather, "their brain structures are adapting to treat the arm as if it were their own appendage", via a brain-implanted chip. "The finding has profound implications both for understanding the extraordinary adaptability of the primate brain and for the potential clinical success of brain-operated devices to give the handicapped the ability to control their environment", said the researchers. Read the story here with full details."
I for one welcome our new bionic simian overlords.
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
Damn, dirty apes....
fp ever
...was there a particular reason they were working with two female monkeys? Are they less aggressive and easier to work with or are they more adaptable than male monkeys? Either way, this is an amazing discovery.
I have neither class nor rank. I am unique.
These experiments already run for years. I even submitted a story about them but was rejected.
Still... I want to have a cybernetic arm, or eight..., please.
See pictures of tits
Do you suppose they will know better how to use it while lying down?
I know one of the guys working on this!
Just wait until we plug into mechs with this technology. Sweet.
Yes! Mr. Burns' dream of planting his head on a robot's body to live forever will come true!
It's a funding-by-media trick -- it generates buzz, but they've got a switch which moves an arm, and a single neuron controlling the on off. From down, to up. No control. You could also say "Monkey uses mind to start a car!" using the same single neuron to control a remote starter. Or "monkey controls gun!" by putting a solenoid on a trigger. Both would play well, but then you wouldn't get that nice picture of an arm moving.
There's no real science, here, just an application of 30 year old-tech.
Disclaimer: I'm basing this on my general distrust and what I am NOT seeing written here.
Interesting neuroscience with obvious transhuman/singularity applications always seem to be directed towards the "disabled". I even remember one scientist being quite happy at the prospect of a handicapped person being able to be employed "by using email". So to get grants they need to let loose more spammers??? Compared to what we'll become, we are plenty disabled already. It'd be nice to have someone who's actually working on these things to mention transhumanism.
Transcend Humanity. Please.
...from my cold dead bionic hands!
-CH
And it's not just funding. Either religious types will go after you for using humans or environmental types will go after you for using monkeys and such. But, what about you. Do you support transhumanism? I sure do, and wish I could donate for it. Best I can think of is the Singularity Institute.
Transcend Humanity. Please.
See, the real news in this is-
I'm going to get a mind-piloted Evangelion someday!
When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.
After millions of us have seen the Hitchhiker's Guide movie, third arms (for skiboxing) will become popular - undoubtedly mostly among men, who go in for such technofetishism. Inevitably, women will go for third breasts, to maintain parity ("triality"?), and close the "grope gap". But, in the tradition of balking at the labor that backs sex innovations, like blowjobs, women won't accept the extra work in maintaining a third interactive nipple. The remote-control groundwork we see in this article offers the chance to offshore nipplecontrol work to banks of African monkeys. On the Internet, no one knows your nipple is a chimp.
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make install -not war
I for one welcome our robotic arm wielding monkey overlords.
Welcome to the land of the free...pay toll ahead...no photography...please open your bag...
Well I do look forward to being mugged by a super strong handicapped person in the future.
BE the car. That would feel really cool.
For those interested, a much more informative description of Schwartz et. al.'s research can be found at his lab paper reprint section (click on on the second title from the top - "Schwartz, A.B.: Cortical neural prostheses, Ann. Rev. Neurosci. 27:487-507, 2004.")
Just to give my two cents, this is cool stuff, but it's not that big of a deal when compared with prior research:
"Investigators have demonstrated the potential of this technology in humans patients with the cone electrode (Kennedy et al. 2000). This electrode is a capillary tube filled with growth factor or peripheral nerve extract. Also in the tube are the exposed ends of two microwires, which act as differential electrodes. Neurites that sprout in re-sponse to the electrode penetration are attracted to the interior of the tube, through which they grow and form synaptic connections to other neurons. The axon is per-manently trapped next to the recording electrode. Although only a few channels of multiunit data were recorded, this activity was used by locked-in ALS patients for communicating with a spelling/letter-board program. One patient used this method for more than a year." -- (Schwartz 503)
Also, it's interesting that the paper notes that "laboratories using CNP suggests that, on average, a chronic electrode implanted in monkey cortex has only a 40% to 60% chance of recording unit activity." (Schwartz 503) -- maybe this is just me, but this percent really needs to go up to at least 95% before it's commercially viable -- it'd really suck to have an ALS patient get a cortical implant stuck in his brain at the tune of $100,000+, and have it break immediately after.
You're right, this is great. What the BBC reported, and what MSNBC wrote did not at all get what is important about this -- assuming we'd all see Buck Rogers in between the lines. What I saw by lack of detail was simplicity.
It's rare that there actually IS Buck Rogers in there. Thanks for the Duke Med News pointer.
I hope those monkeys lost their arms of natural causes.
Marques Johansson
Now we will be forced to look at pictures of moneys scratching themselves with 3 and 4 arms... wow their balls must really itch...
...the cybernetic monkey spanks you.
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
"Or robotic surgery where surgeons could actually feel what their scalpels are cutting. Or soldiers mentally controlling battle droids. Get the toughness of metal with the adaptability of the human mind! Or don't just drive, plug in and really feel the car operate. You could get neurological feedback on any problems the car might be developing. Or just use the interface to get awesome control."
I for one do not like the idea of getting electrodes implanted in my brain just to drive a car!
We already have a good interface for driving cars. They are called hands and feet.
Really this has GREAT potential for helping people that have problems but I really hope we do not go for surgically modifying our brains just to drive cars.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
I wonder if in an extreme case would the use of normal limbs become difficult? Kind of like when you're in zero g your muscles atrophy. If we did have this 'mind control' ability for machines/tools, would we lose dexterity and motor skills?
Lane Myer: I have great fear of tools. I once made a birdhouse in woodshop and the fair housing committee condemned it.
I for one welcome our robotic arm wielding monkey overlords
mmmmmm robotic arm welding monkeys
You can either rescue the kidnapped people and put them on the shore, or take some people (kidnapped or not!) to civilization. There they can talk to the civilization to get everyone over there.
Transcend Humanity. Please.