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Brain/Machine Interfaces Approaching Usefulness
Gary writes with a link to a Wired article about a brain-machine interface that may eventually have practical purposes. Though right now it simply allows a user to move a train on a track by performing math in their head, someday it may result in more serious applications. "Honda, whose interface monitors the brain with an MRI machine like those used in hospitals, is keen to apply the interface to intelligent, next-generation automobiles. The technology could one day replace remote controls and keyboards and perhaps help disabled people operate electric wheelchairs, beds or artificial limbs. Initial uses would be helping people with paralyzing diseases communicate even after they have lost all control of their muscles. Since 2005, Hitachi has sold a device based on optical topography that monitors brain activity in paralyzed patients so they can answer simple questions - for example, by doing mental calculations to indicate 'yes' or thinking of nothing in particular to indicate 'no.'"
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My boss and I were just talking human-machine interfaces yesterday. He was relating to me how he had purchased some stock in a company that specializes in human-machine interface R&D. I wondered how they managed to map brain waves (or thoughts?) to instructions.
Scientist: "Ok now to turn left just start thinking about any kind of cheese."
*Patient starts spinning madly in a circle*
Scientist: "HEY! You're thinking about my WIFE you bastard!"
How do we know a paralysed guy wants this thing telling us what he's thinking. For all we know, he's probably having a good time watching all these people asking him to blink for yes and blink twice for no. And now you make him do freaking math! How the hell does he get the damn thing off? I mean, nobody's gonna ask him if he wants to use it. And if he wants screaming No No No in his head, he'd just have to think of nothing over and over again?
We need privacy laws for the damn device!
Cheers!
Atheist: Buddhist in a Prius
-- Thou hast strayed far from the path of the Avatar.
What if you have very poor math skills; does the toy train derail?
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is usually crucified.
Will this fix the very common keyboard to chair interface errors that so many of my customers suffer from?
UTF-8: There and Back Again
The advanced alien race created a machine that would do whatever they wanted, just by thinking about it, and, well, they destroyed each other!
You start building these machines, and the next thing you know, armies of robots tasked to do our bidding will wind up ripping the clothes off the most attractive people. Fortunately, our arms race of fat has prepared us for this.
Time to crack open a bag of Cheetos, before it is too late!
This is my sig.
A train of thought.
If moderation could change anything, it would be illegal.
The oblig Back to the Future reference: "You mean you have to use your hands? That's a baby's toy."
-- I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist. It's not my fault that life sucks so much. --
If we also have the ability to turn it on via thought, than we have the ability to fire 100x faster than a regular pilot who is pulling a trigger that will release a bullet, a missle, or a bomb.
Two pilots flying along.
One asks the other "So, how long have you been married now?"
The other responds "Lemme see, we got married in '98, so..."
Whoosh.
"Crap."
"What?"
"I think I just bombed New Jersey."
That does it - we must rush this into production ASAP!
...following the principles of Heisenburger's Uncertain Cat...
Yes, but you will need to THINK in russian !
How about this: attach a biomechanical device to those high-bandwidth nerves in your wrist. It could use energy supplied by your body's own circulatory system to squeeze bits of meat. This would force the meat-blobs against an array of contacts, suspended above terminals by a dimpled rubber sheet, which could close electrical circuits. The computer would then interpret these as letters of the alphabet, or special commands.