Slashdot Mirror
Scientists Develop Cyborg Interface Algorithm
StCredZero writes "A ZDNet article discusses advances in the translation of brain activity to electronic control being made at MIT. Their approach allows a paralyzed individual to manipulate a prosthetic - but that's not the important advance. 'Other scientists have already done that, and built prototypes for neural brain-to-machine devices that can work for animals or humans. But each team has taken a different approach to the problem, such as developing algorithms for measuring activity in a specific brain region, or measuring them through EEGs vs. optical imaging. MIT said that it has developed a unified algorithm that can work within the parameters of these different approaches. Lakshminarayan "Ram" Srinivasan, lead author of a paper on the subject, said MIT's new graphical models are applicable no matter what measurement technique is used. "We don't need to reinvent a new paradigm for each modality or brain region," he said in a statement.'"
...welcome our future cyborg overlords.
Start a happiness pandemic
I wish I had that kind of creativity. I tried going by the nickname of "Big Dick", but folks just laughed.
I prefer Flambe as apposed flamebait.
Wake me when this is applied to something useful. I'll be first in line to reduce myself to a bloody torso if I can replace all my limbs with robotic replacements. Then I will be your cybernetically enhanced overlord.
Murphy, is that you in there?
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed H
Still, he said, the algorithm isn't perfect, nor the final solution to solving what is a difficult problem.
Lawyer: Did you mean to shoot your wife||husband?
Defendant: I was so mad I may have thought about it but in no way did I consciously shoot him. My arm has a mind of his own
DA: Objection your honor, defendant is saying what amounts to their "neural prosthetic aid that can link an individual's brain activity to the person's intentions; and then translate that intention into movement." that is just not possible.
Laywer: Your honor, we have Slashdot, Groklaw and MIT printouts which show the validity of the defendant's claim
Judge: Sustained
Infiltrated dot Net
Did no one watch Voyager?! This is how the end starts.. First we're all happy people with our little cyborg chips to control our sex bots, then suddenly we take real women and make them sex bots.. and they'd be all like "I love Mr. God man" and be rubbing us, and feeding us grapes.. maybe serving ice cold beer. .. .. ..
Where can I buy these chips??
Anything is solvable with another layer of abstraction.
-USR1
10 FOR I = 1 TO 50 20 WALK 30 IF ROBOT = BUMPINTOSOMETHING THEN GOTO 50 40 NEXT I 50 PRINT "Ouch!"; 60 TURNAROUND 70 GOTO 10
The mouse and keyboard would no longer be needed. You would likely be able to interface with computers much faster as well allowing people to get more work done in a day, but at the possible cost of less motion needed. People with a chip in their head could possibly work from their bed, with just a screen on the ceiling. Advances in robotics will allow robot servants. They already have toy versions of these. Laziness is already a problem, and it will only grow as people have to do less and less. I know it's still a long way in the making, and I can't wait for things like this to become mainstream, but also fear it a little.
Someone save me from this sanity.
...until we have 14 year olds piloting mecha to save the world. (Okay, the Eva aren't mecha exactly, but that's one of my favorite series.)