Remote Control for Humans?

FatMacDaddy writes "The SFGate is reporting on a remote control for manipulating humans through electrical stimulation of the inner ear nerves.The author of this article describes his experience with having a "remote control for humans" device used on him. The developers hope to use this with video games and other entertainment, but it might also be used as a weapon to disable people. An interesting read with perhaps some disturbing implications. Better get a second layer on those tinfoil hats!"

Comments

women have had this for years.

[Anonymous Coward]

they're called breasts.

Re:women have had this for years.

[HermanAB]

A remote control to control breasts? That is called a diamond, but be warned, it seems to wear out over time, it is not forever...

Re:women have had this for years.

[zxnos]

you need to recharge the batteries in the remote with additional diamonds, birthstones, gold, silver, china, etc... just like any other rechargeable battery, the charge is shorter each time...

Re:women have had this for years.

[LiquidMind]

us guys have one too!

Re:women have had this for years.

[bclark]

Anyone else scared to click that link?

Old news

[krautcanman]

This is old news from a few months back: http://www.forbes.com/business/innovators/2005/08/ 04/technology-remote-control-humans_cx_lh_0804remo tehuman.html

404...conspiracy theories begin!

[Anonymous Coward]

Obligatory Family Guy quote follows:

Stewie: Good day, shopkeep.
Chris: Good day shopkeep, I require a hand-operated buzzsaw capable of cutting through a human sternum.
Shopkeep: What?
Chris: It's for a school project, I'm some sort of student sent here for... oh blast what the devil do they study? uh... Latin class.
Shopkeep: Uhh, sorry kid, I can't sell power tools to minors.
Chris: Now look here you gore-bellied codpiece. Allow me to purchase the provisions I demand or I'll form your blue collar into a red one and-
Who the deuce are you? No I don't have any spare change. Where the hell would I keep it? In my diaper? Get out of here you hobo. Oh bloody hell, is this thing still on?

Disturbing implications indeed...

[Fermatprime]

"An interesting read with perhaps some disturbing implications." I'll say - what if you lose it?

Nothing New

[lenmaster]

Wives had had this for their husbands for years now.

my day

[d1a1v1e]

Back in my day we used to use remote controles on cars.

My word...

[mozingod]

Imagine the implications of this with the adult entertainment industry!

Now that's entertainment!

question

[NoGuffCheck]

Does it have a volume control? Can you calobrate it to my girlfriend? How soon can you get it to me? and here's all my money!

Head movements

[saskboy]

"Better get a second layer on those tinfoil hats!"

Or just don't put on the headgear that controls you.

Either way, I'm not going to work at any job that requires me to wear this remote control, unless it's wireless. Wearing headgear all day with a wire attached would probably give me a sore neck by causing restricted head movements.

Obligatory...

[Anonymous Coward]

I, for one, welcome our new inner-ear remote-control overlords.

confirmed dupe

[Jucius Maximus]

Previously reported on slashdot too.

weaponization unlikely

[EngMedic]

in order to weaponize this system, you'd have to figure out how to attatch electrodes behind the lobes of someone's ears at range -- and i challenge anyone to figure out how to do THAT. As it stands, vestibular stim is a cool new idea on how to improve balance control in risky environments (high iron construction workers faced with strong winds?), or the elderly and people with some form of vestibular impairment. I know of at least once case of essentially permanent dizziness, in which the patient suffered an accident that took out half of the vestibular system, so he is only getting feedback from one side of his body.

As a student at one of the big universities where balance control and vestibular control is studied -- let me be the first to say that all of this is HIGHLY alpha. At best, it's proof-of-concept only. I wouldn't be worried about being "remote controlled" -- but hey, add this to a VR sim and things might get better than the crappy sim software/hardware that we've had since the mid90's -- or do some of the stuff i mentioned above.

Re:Sure...

[Anonymous Coward]

Why don't you wear it voluntarily? It lets us protect you against terrorists. You're not a terrorist, are you?

in defense of the foil

[apt_user]

Please, I beg you all, stop making sarcastic remarks about the healthful benefits of alluminum foil headwear. Such devices are proven to be effective protection against a variety of stressors - both theoretical and non - which could cause irreversible damage to our inner cortexes, including but not limited to: electrostatic radiation, photonic radiation (both below and above the visible spectrum), direct sunlight, sonic intonations, unvoiced alveolar fricatives, exosolar radiation, sublunar electrostaticity, supraterrestrial automotive frustration, undefined free radicals, affective spherical earth rhetoric, ectoplasmic goo, artificial nonterrestrial mental affectae, habeus corpus, quantum relativity, venetian sausage, psychological longitudinal surveys, cathode ray tube emissions (both dynamic and static), retrograde motion, reversed cognitive flotation, vulcan mind melds, social mobility, dyslexic antithetical mythology, imablance of the four humors, dentistry, meeting the love of your life, recieving a darwin award, overseasonned exotic foods, strongbad's email, end-user liscence aggreements, and ketchup.

Please take the time to consider these and other reasons to treat alluminum foil as a reasonable, effective form of alternative preventitive medicine for everyone's mental well-being.

-apt

"medieval students were no less manic-depressive, riot-prone, or financially indignant than their modern counterparts"

I think I have one of these..

[ehrichweiss]

no seriously...I do. Back a few years ago there was an invention that was released called MotionWare aka Virtual Motion. It worked with 3 electrodes: one on your forehead and 2 on the mastoid process, that boney region behind your ears(sound familiar?). It affects the inner ear. Forward, backward, left, right, and if the visuals were good, up and down. There were apparently less than 100 prototypes built...I have one. Often thought of selling it to someone who would use it better than I since my original plan fell through. I might be glad I kept it.

I did get an interesting effect from it: due to the high resistance of my skin I have to turn the device WAY up to get any response and during the strongest pulses, I saw flashes of light that were not present outside of my optic nerve(it wasn't arcing in other words).

Anyway, as I read the article, it's less about remote control humans and more about being able to affect what they are feeling which is scary but with this version they'd have to sneak up on you and covertly put these things on your skull...with good electrode contact..and probably lube to prevent burning. If it does use the same technology as what I have then you need to know that there are 3 different ways(at least) that we sense motion and the inner ear is only one. The other two are visual and the type of feeling you get in your joints when you accelerate on, say, a bus; this is aka proprioceptive I think. If they didn't have something that would give you a slightly harder time to keep your balance(we used the Tempurpedic(tm) memory foam because it shifts acording to the weight and temperature. Without this, you don't feel any shift in your joints so if your visual environment didn't move either, you'd mostly discard the signal. It's because of the "rule" of 'virtual reality': you have to fool 2 of the 3 ways we sense motion for the brain to accept it as real. And despite all this, with a slight amount of concentration, you can see through the illusion. Maybe what they have is different..I'll have to research to find out now.