Slashdot Mirror
Teen Plays Videogame With Brain Signals
SkyFire360 writes "A team of ECoG (ElectroCorticography) researchers from Washington University in St. Louis successfully wired a young man's brain up to a computer and began reading the neurological firings in his brain. After analyzing the action potentials created when a neuron fires, they were able to get two-dimensional control of a cursor. Taking the research one step further, they decided to connect an old Atari 2600 to the signal processing computer to see if the young man could control the videogame system."
Space Invaders on an Atari 2600? Played with Mind Control?!? Very funny, guys.
:P
I suppose the researchers thought it would be hi-friggin'-larious to make the Atari Mindlink a reality. That way they really COULD play games with their mind! (Insert *snickers* and *gaffaws* here.) Considering that the original was a sham (you were really moving your brow to control the game), I'm not sure they really want to be associated with such "technology".
On the other hand, I suppose they deserve some serious Geek Cred for making such an obscure reference with this experiment. Most people wouldn't "get it" anyway, and would only see the neat research going on.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
I saw this ten plus years ago on PBS. It was a professor somewhere could control hos sail boat with this. This is nothing new. Call me when they can do more than binary control. That would be interesting.
quis custodiet ipsos custodes
Stories like this always make me wonder whether the people involved actually decoded the signals firing off in that guy's brain. I thinks it's more likely he learned to create the signals they were looking for.
Can nobody else see he is using his left hand to move a mouse and his right hand just distracts you...
Not close to the same but a few years ago I bought a used Zenith TV with built in Pong. Great deal, but it didn't have the controllers. Rather than build them right, my brother and I stuck stereo wire into the controller ports and held the bare wire ends in our hands. By carefully squeezing and releasing we could alter the resistance through our bodies (ok, it was altering the contact resistance mostly). We didn't have much problem playing but the method was so sensitive that we had to sit completely motionless without talking. We looked like a couple of zombies playing Pong with our minds. Too bad the TV fried itself in 3 weeks.
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
"Smart BrainGames"
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1040_22-5940181.html
It's for AD(H)D kids & the example I remember was Burnout. Your brain waves controlled the accelerator. When you lost focus, you started slowing down (losing) when your brain waves were doing what the doctors wanted, you kept going full speed.
Your Brain + PS2 = behavioral therapy
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
I'm not too sure but the article seems to say that this method still requires invasive (i.e. surgical) techniques to extract the brain signals used to interface with the system. It did suggest that using EEG as a non-invasive alternative for getting those same signals, but I don't think they elaborated on why they didn't use it (I don't know much about either technique, so if someone more informed could enlighten me). I'm just wondering if there is a possibility of a cost-effective "thinking-cap" of some sort in the future that could provide the proper signals for gaming or other electronic activities, to avoid invasive brain plugs ala Matrix or Ghost in the Shell style interfaces.
I'm just speculating about the possibilities and have no real knowledge of the practicality or viability for either of these techniques in the near future. For people looking to opperate prosthetic limbs and such, a permanent surgical plug of sorts seems like a fine solution, but for people who don't want to have to upgrade that plug each time the technology advances, a non-invasive system seems like a more ideal solution.
Some months ago, a friend and me participated in an experiment conducted by the TU Graz - we were wired, took some calibration tests and were finally able to play Pong against each other - only with wired caps on our heads. It sort of worked, but was difficult to control without a proper training period.It worked by comparing our brain waves while thinking of moving our left or right arm and mapping the characteristic output to left-right commands. Sometimes it would work quite well but a lot of times the panel just would move utterly weird. I believe that this can work well, depending on how much you're used to it - we only had like one hour of training.
2^5
Namaste. I've been working as the systems administrator at the Neurodevelopment Center in Providence, RI. We're a psychological clinic focusing on using EEG-controlled neurofeedback to treat a whole bunch of psychiatric disorders, mostly things on the autistic spectrum and various forms of ADHD. The technology is still very new, and probably not quite as effective as one could hope, but we still get very good results - around 70% of our clients show significant improvement. Brain-Machine interfaces will thoroughly revolutionize the way think about psychiatry. Of course, the big pharmaceutical companies have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, so expect to here a lot from detractors and skeptics in the years to come.