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Brain/Machine Interfaces Approaching Usefulness

Posted by Zonk on from the working-brain-in-hand dept.

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.'"

14 of 129 comments (clear)

  1. Very Cool by phantomcircuit · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm looking forward to being able to write simply by thinking, typing slows me down soooo much.

  2. Captain Pike by Short+Circuit · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.'" I guess Captain Pike got stuck with an old model, dating all the way back to 2005...
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  3. I want one by UbuntuDupe · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I can't wait till I can buy one of these things. I figure with practice, you can increase the precision of your thought and thus the number of signals you can give. Conceivably, you'd be able to enter text as quickly as you can think it.

    Would increasing the use of your brain like this, to give commands, make you smarter in some way, as well?

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  4. What a coincidence! by rehtonAesoohC · · Score: 4, Funny

    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!"

  5. Privacy of the paralysed by vigmeister · · Score: 3, Funny

    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!

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    Atheist: Buddhist in a Prius
  6. Re:The real impact by doug · · Score: 3, Funny

    The real impact
    Will be on pornography. Just like the internet.
    and not a minute too soon.
  7. What if you are bad at math? by dfn5 · · Score: 4, Funny

    simply allows a user to move a train on a track by performing math in their head
    "Tonight at 11, 2 trains collide. Engineer says he forgot to carry the 1"
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  8. What worries me... by Ghoser777 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    is what happens when you think something that you don't want to actually carry out? I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who has random thoughts that enter their mind and then you dismiss and don't actually do anything with. How can you tell between idle thoughts and thoughts that are supposed to bring about actions?

    --
    James Tiberius Kirk: "Spock, the women on your planet are logical. No other planet in the galaxy can make that claim."
    1. Re:What worries me... by venicebeach · · Score: 3, Interesting

      is what happens when you think something that you don't want to actually carry out? I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who has random thoughts that enter their mind and then you dismiss and don't actually do anything with. How can you tell between idle thoughts and thoughts that are supposed to bring about actions?
      It's an interesting point, because the brain does use much the same circuitry for imagining action as it does for executing actions. For example, premotor cortex and supplementary motor areas are typically activated by imagining an action you don't perform, and some subregions can even be activated by seeing someone else perform an action. However, there are differences, obviously, which is why you don't perform every action you imagine (although there are a few cases of brain damage in the literature where this happens!). Primary motor cortex, which has most of the neurons that send signals downstream to the spinal cord is generally not activated by imagination.

      Short answer is that a sufficiently sophisticated device could tell the difference.
  9. Re:One day by moderatorrater · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In the future, computers will be seamless extensions of our will and using them will require no more thought than moving our own hands For some of us it's already like that.
  10. It's optical _tomography_, not optical topography by John+Hasler · · Score: 3, Insightful

    n/t

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  11. Cool! by Bluesman · · Score: 4, Funny

    A train of thought.

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  12. Re:Nope: by feepness · · Score: 3, Funny

    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."

  13. Re:Nope: by Gospodin · · Score: 3, Funny

    "I think I just bombed New Jersey."

    That does it - we must rush this into production ASAP!

    --
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