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Researchers Create Radio Controlled Humans
utherdoul writes "Say goodbye to remote-controlled cars, say hello to remote-controlled people. Forbes.com (disclosure: I work there) sent a lucky reporter (further disclosure: I am jealous it was not me) to the SIGGRAPH computer graphics conference in Los Angeles, where NTT researchers debuted a device designed to exploit the effects of Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation. As the story explains, when a weak electrical pulse is delivered to the mastoid behind your ear, your body responds by shifting your balance towards it. If the current is strong enough, it not only throws you off balance, but alters the course of your movement. Reading about it really doesn't do it justice -- you have to check out the crazy
video of a remotely controlled woman. (Realvideo)"
.. I for one welcome our new remote-control weilding overlords, and remind them that, as a devoted member of their volleyball team, disco enclave, and cow wash, I'm perfectly qualified to serve drinks at their orgies, fresh coppertops and all ..
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
I, for one, hope women will welcome me as their new remote-control-weilding overlord.
Yes, here's the secret new interface paradigm promised by the Nintendo Revolution. Beware, though!- firmware v2.0 turnes it into an enslavement device, and the rest of us will have to fight an army of 8-16 year olds! (plus a few older /.ers...)
They researchers discuss using the method to generate vertigo and "centrifugal forces" for gamers. If it works in gaming, it will no doubt find a way into simulator training for military operations too. The applications aren't exactly endless, but there does seem to be a market for this.
I wonder if it is painless. Except for the falling over, I mean.
Jesus saved me from my past. He can save you as well.
If you want to fight it, all you have to do is go limp.
It can't force you to walk anywhere, it justs makes you tip in one direction or the other, and your automatic walking reflex keeps you under your center of gravity.
The video didn't look all that "crazy". It was just a woman walking around with a dazed expression and silly grin. We can only assume she was under control of the remote.
xkcd.com - a webcomic of mathematics, love, and language.
It's not the best alternative, but anything's got to be better than Real
Jesus saved me from my past. He can save you as well.
I just watched the video and it is way cool.
Unlike those dopey walking and dancying robots which I have no interest in, if Sony would just bring to market the "remote controlled goofy japanese cutey" I would buy one, heck I'd even go for two and get twin models -- they could remotely control each other when I get bored with doing it myself.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
and you can walk like a drunk without having to drink :D :)
isn't sciense marvellous these days
"Honey, get me a beer?" "I'm busy." "I said... a beer, woman!" *zap* "Thank you." It works in reverse too.. "Honey, can you finish building the deck?" "I'm busy" "I said.. finish building the deck!" *zap* Yknow it really brings new meaning to couples fighting over the remote control....
My powers of prediction tell me that such a position would have an extraordinarily short life expectancy. Particularly, for a slashdot reading marshmellow, that bitches about the editors, while living in his parents basement like a trapdoor spider; pouncing on 2L bottles of Mountain Dew and bags of snackie-cakes that wander too close.
Gee, this should be posted in Your Rights Online :-)
And send that woman right to my bed!
ASF
RAM
When I tell an object to delete this, am I killing it or telling it to kill me?
must... watch... video... can't ... control... own.. movements...
ahhhhh!!
So, we have androids that look and feel alot like humans (earlier /. article),
and now we have people that act like robots.
this is getting a little too weird for me.
--- Caffeine is directly responsible for some of my greatest ideas, and some of my most embarrassing moments...
mplayer http://images.forbes.com//video/fvn/misc/radiocon
err... my Japanese isn't too hot but I think the commentator in the clip refers to the device as the "parasite human".
Is it just me or is this really sinister?
They also relate it to robotics research... human robots..
Also it looks like it should be easy to build into standard audio headphones.... perhaps they already have!.... dun dun DUHHHH!
Ok, so whats the problem with Real then? Sure versions before 10 was real shitty. Nowadays I actually prefer (if .mpeg and .divx is unavailable) real media. A player exists for my os of choice (Linux) with a nice and well integrated GTK2 interface. On OS X It's also fast an a lot better then the quicktime player. Neither Quicktime or Windows Media Player exists for Linux. WMP for OS X is a peice of shit and crashes frequently and on Windows it has got the worst interface ever seen in a media player. And everyone already knows how adridden and horrid Quicktime is for Windows.
If you're running Windows, use Real Alternative, http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternati ve.htm works great with Firefox
www.microsoft.com/athome/sec urity/children/kidtalk.mspx Was This Information Useful?
Or, if for some bizarre reason you actually want to install RealPlayer, the BBC offers a spyware/adware free installer for RealOne.
If we all recall the remote controlled cockroaches, I guess this is V1.1+
Go Away! Not for Sale
See, for instance, http://jp.physoc.org/cgi/content/full/517/3/631 a paper from 1999 with the title "Galvanic vestibular stimulation: new uses for an old tool" Best,
In all honesty i think that is the exception to the rule. In all other cases based in reality that i've seen (dude, manga doesn't count), it is the bush that controls the dick.
And your lying if you disagree with me.
Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know when your gonna get food poisoning.
1) Does the player try to take over any other formats than just Real's own?
2) Does it install an icon to the tasktray?
3) How many desktop icons does it install?
4) How many processes does it startup on boot?
5) Does it integrate the codec into the operating system so that any codec-aware player can use it?
6) How much data does it send back to Real's servers?
7) Is the installation process simple and straightforward with a single checkbox to opt-in? Or is it a long series of dialog boxes with hidden checkboxes all over the place?
8) Does it play videos inline in the browser?
9) When I close the player (assuming it requires opening the player to watch the media), does it try to stay memory resident?
10) Is it still Real that makes this? (this is a deal breaker)
http://www.traktor.com/musicvideos/low/Fatboy_Slim .mov
It has been known for some time that electrical currents send to the muscles may cause you to move them. In this way you may control the motion directly, not only by throwing someone off balance, but actually make each individual body part bend.
There's a (crazy?) artist who has a show, where he do this. Once he danced a synchronized dance, with an industrial robot. Other times he has benne "dancing" to the response times of the internet (lag).
Now this technology has been explored to see if people can be remotely operated. This could be used to allow people in the field to operate on a patient, remotely controlled by a doctor. Now the doctor is controlling the person in the other end in the same way. Here sensors read the electrical current in his muscles as he moves his hands.
So far the sensibility to do surgery is not possible, but major movement like moving an arm or closing a hand has been successful.
Others have already mentioned the possibility of remote sex. Here your partner can control your arms and hands in the same way as you may control his or hers...
-:) Oh no - not again.
www.rednebula.com
Just watch people as they come down the concourse and try to pass the Cinnabon store... you get exactly the same glazed-eye, vectored walking behavior, and no headset, other than the ubiquitous iPod. Of course, the Japanese approach is carb-free.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
As someone who suffers from vestibular dysfunction (i.e, I experience daily what these research subjects went through, and my bad spells are more intense), I think I can offer some insight on this:
- Computers that help people avoid falling down if they, for whatever reason, have lousy balance or slow reaction. Perhaps it could help older folks for whom falling down can be a serious risk.
Doubtful. You'd have to be able to perfectly compensate for the damage in order to cancel it out. It's like applying an inverse signal to cancel it out, but you have no way of reading what the original (faulty) signal is, or what the correct signal should be. An implant that replaced the vestibular organs would be the only way. Where else could you put the artifical motion sensors?
Furthermore, balance is determined by three system: the two vestibular organs and your vision. Once vestibular distubances reach a certain level, you start experiencing visual problems. Your eyes start moving uncontrolably to try to compensate for the preceived but not real motion. Try the following:
Look directly at these words. Keep your eyes focused on this sentance and move your head slowly back and forth. Notice that you do not have to conciously move your eyes to keep them focused on this paragraph; it's completely automatic.
Vestibular disturbance screws with that process. Your brain gets signals that your head is moving when it's not, and orders the eyes to move to compensate. The result is a seemlingly endless motion in one direction, i.e, the room is spinning. In reality, your eyes are moving back and forth rapidly, but your brain can't deal with the discrepency between what your eye sees and what the vestibular regions are reporting.
I wrote all that to make an important point. There is a limit to how far this device can go. You can't scale up the signal to create a greater sensation of movement. Push it to far, and you'll experience the visual disruptions I mentioned. I strongly suspect that you can't push it far enough to make it useful for movies, games, etc., where simulating a high level of motion is desirable. You'd just end up making everyone sick.
Now I'll comment on another poster since lately I can't get slashdot to accept more than one comment for a story:
If you want to fight it, all you have to do is go limp.
It can't force you to walk anywhere, it justs makes you tip in one direction or the other, and your automatic walking reflex keeps you under your center of gravity.
Not true, at least in my experience. Going limp won't do squat except guarantee you fall. Your body will attempt to compensate whether you're walking or standing still, even if doing so throws you out of balance. Remember, it's trying to compensate for faulty data.
You're also massively underestimating how powerful vestibular disruption can be. At my worst, it didn't just tip me to one side, it threw me against the wall. It took massive effort from a very strong male nurse to hold me up and keep me from doing some real damage to myself.
http://ticom.tyumen.ru/jokes/itsasony.jpg
Despite what the summary would imply, this device doesn't take over your body and completely control your movements. I was at SIGGRAPH and tried it out -- it just throws off your sense of balance, making it hard to walk in a straight line. The effect isn't strong enough to make you fall down, and you could probably learn to compensate for it pretty quickly if you tried.
The effect is good enough for video games, though -- as part of the demo they put you in front of a driving sim, and use the device to simulate the centripetal force when you go around corners. It was pretty cool.
For most people, it seemed to be painless, but after a little while my skin started to sting where the electrodes where attached.
If the units were smaller and automated, they could prevent prison escapes. Whenever a prisoner leaves a certain area, it would direct him back or force him to stop walking.
Then the ACLU complains.
... wherein after a ruling of guilty, a small device is implanted in your head. It does wonderful things. A GPS connection keeps authorities aware of where you are. Should you deviate from the terms of your sentence, your balance can be immediately impaired making you incapable of coherent movement e.g. escape, resistance, etc.
Although a recent development, there's still time to get prototypes out to existing cases say, Martha Stewart or suspected terrorists (nothing makes bomb-making trickier than a lack of balance induced long range by powerful shortwave random radio bursts). Of course, this could stimulate a resurgence of the tin-foil hat market.
What is it with the Japanese and remote control of things? Years ago there was an experiment where they controlled cockroach movement via implants. Frankly, there is something vaguely horrifying about the video despite, or perhaps because of, the girl's giggling.
"Consensus" in science is _always_ a political construct.
Thats what they need to make using this technology.
:P
Put a gyroscope (or heck a simple level would probably work) inside a helmet as a balance sensor and have the electric nodes stimulate the opposite side that the drunk tilts toward.
That way, the drunk can keep his/her balance as they walk home.
DEAD DEAD DEAD DELETE ME
I wasn't impressed. It does give a vague impression of being off balance but it didn't have a very strong effect and it wasn't very directional. When I tried their racing game demo I felt nothing that was in any way coordinated with what was happening in the game. It did give me a vague feeling of motion sickness which continued after I had removed the device. The electrodes also felt unpleasant though the other people I tried it with didn't feel this.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
I am a Ph.D. student at the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, Canada. I actually do research using GVS. Here's links to some of our research (Pubmed). GVS 1, :)). What troubles me is that the magnitude of the deviations is so large from the video. We showed that when walking in an open environment (e.g. like in the video), deviations due to GVS (with eyes open) is VERY small (~10 cm over a 3m distance). Even with eyes closed, the magnitude of the deviation was only 30 cm for 3m forward travel. GVS amplitude was set at 3x the threshold required to induce sway while standing (~1.5 mA) and some subjects reported that this could get painful. My main beef with this is that it appears from the video that the researchers were exaggerating the effect for the cameras. This is not to say that GVS does not have useful commercial applications, but this notion of "remote controlled humans" is an exaggeration. We have tried hooking up GVS to a flight simulator and got mixed feelings from subjects, but I believe that if tweaked correctly, this could be an area of application. However, because people react differently to different levels of stimulation, the problem of individual differences, and determining a threshold level might be tricky (also too high of a current can fry your brain, so kids, don't try this at home)!!
GVS 2
GVS 3
(disclosure: I am Carlsen on the papers
RealPlayer has mellowed it's act. The new version, RealPlayer 10 is advertising-ridden and tries to take over your filetypes, but tell it no and it actually listens.
On the Mac it runs great.
I happen to know and use this muscle in another application (sort of)...
In Judo, when you grab the opponent collar, this is where you put the bone on the back of your thumb to induce (more or less forcibly) a reflexive movement in the direction you wish (on beginners) or a conscient counter-pressure from intermediate fighters , so as to then accentuate the move and throw him/her/it somewhere on his back.
You get an instinctive reaction to avoid pressure on this point, so your body, in trying to protect you, is actually betraying you...
Try it with friends, for fun, don't try it on your sensei, he's gonna make you fly 8p
There are lots of pressure point used in acupuncture, massages and martial arts that have very interesting effects - healing, relaxative, dolorous or just plain deadly.
Google a bit, its quite educative 8)
It takes 40+ muscles to frown, but only four to extend your arm and bitchslap the motherfucker