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Japan's Cyborg Research Enters the Skull
RemyBR writes "Researchers at Osaka University are stepping up efforts to develop robotic body parts controlled by thought, by placing electrode sheets directly on the surface of the brain. The research marks Japan's first foray into invasive (i.e. requiring open-skull surgery) brain-machine interface research on human test subjects. The aim of the research is to develop real-time mind-controlled robotic limbs for the disabled. 'To date, the researchers have worked with four test subjects to record brain wave activity generated as they move their arms, elbows and fingers. Working with Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR), the researchers have developed a method for analyzing the brain waves to determine the subject's intended activity to an accuracy of greater than 80%.'"
Wouldn't it be easier to place the electrodes on the peripheral nerves that would normally have controlled the missing limb? Surely, that would be preferable to opening the skull...
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~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
I give it about 2 months until they come up with a gameshow using the new technology.
Open brain surgery and mind controlled robot, dangerous? pff! That doesn't sound dangerous at all!
Which provides the greater threat to civilization: Dr. Octupus (insidious human intelligence in control of super, robotically enhanced strength) or Skynet (insidious artificial intelligence in control of super, robotically enhanced strength)?
Just make sure to say no if one these subjects starts asking for more tritium!
I got a catholic block.
If you think you would definitely slap that ass, your limb will actually do it. Woops.
Does that mean I can finally get a robotic prehensile tail installed? Or will they only work on installing "replacement" parts that are "supposed" to be there?
I think the most interesting thing about research like this is, not only the technology behind the interface, but the fact that the brain it self will adapt to use the new interface.
The basic concept of the brain is it's ability to create pathways to 'memorize' an action. This is why a right handed person can learn to write with the left hand. In the same way the brain can learn how to manipulate the interface and thus create new pathways to make it an innate action
am really excited about such research, mostly because it brings us another step closer to the day when we can even enhance our brains (and physical capabilities) using machines.
It makes me wonder if physically and mentally challenged people are going to be the most important players in our meta-evolution into a man-machine hybrid. After all people would naturally freak out at first if someone suggested using this kind of technology on healthy humans to "enhance" them, because the idea is alien and it is natural to be scared of the unknown. But once this kind of technology is mainstream and is used routinely to bring at par people who would otherwise be seriously challenged, then much of the fear would be quelled. The next obvious step would be to lower the bar of what constitutes "challenged".
Too bad I might be dead before they figure out how to interface a "google chip" of sorts and all the knowledge known to mankind is just a thought away.
Hopefully they've thought of this already, but I could totally see them getting bogged down in studies of the nature "Ok, try to pick up cup A, now cup B" etc and overlooking what the device would do during the rest of the time when you're NOT picking up a cup.
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
"This will feel... a little weird."
The problem with socialism is that they always run out of other people's money. - Margaret Thatcher
He's engaging my vocal function .... and is now inside.
I think the most interesting thing about research like this is, not only the technology behind the interface, but the fact that the brain it self will adapt to use the new interface.
:P
Yeah, it's amazing. I've seen a lesser version of this in the "thought controlled mouse" some years ago, where a clip on your finger measure electrical pulses (or something, don't remember technical details), and after about an hour of "training" people were able to control the mouse without moving, just thinking about it.
Or look at people who've had the corpus collosum severed, and are still able to function at some degree of normalcy with their brain literally cut in half.
Amazingly flexible machines, our brains. If only my software was as versatile as my wetware.
The enemies of Democracy are
Being a patient of corrective surgery for epilepsy twice, I decided to actually RTFA.
The article is about Japan placing electrodes directly onto the brain to pick up more accurate signals. This actually has no direct link to having computer controlled body parts; as the FTA says they have been using electrodes placed directly on the brain to pick up activity when one moves his or her arm.
Why is this old news? during my last round of epilepsy correction surgery, (in 2001) I went through surgery so they could place an electrode plate inside my skull in order to pick up right temporal and frontal lobe activity with the greatest accuracy. I can tell you it gave me the worst headache ever for the week or so they monitored me for seizure activity, but they immediately removed it once they decided the correct tissue to remove. Thankfully since then, it showed that the second time, not third, was the charm, for i'm off of seizure drugs without having seizure activity. And intelligence-wise, well, I still can write in assembly, and I read slashdot 3times a day. (that doesn't exactly show i'm intelligent though, not all slashdotters use their brains :-P)
As you can see, this article is BS. Wake me up when they are using electrodes to directly interface with and manage brain activity, none of this activity reading bullshit. Yes, i was in a bad mood previous to reading TFA. heh.
EndOfRant
... and you thought the Sony rootkit was evil when it was on music CDs.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Ah yes. The sea cow.
Thar she lows!
On the upside, there's the vastly improved uptime...
I only post comments when someone on the internet is wrong.
Who said we didn't think about it? It's just a bit of a cliche now, even if it is awesome :P This is nowhere near Ghost in the Shell level diving and prosthetic control though, we're still in baby steps. It shouldn't really be that difficult to do because our sensory and motor sections of the brain are basically at the very surface on the top left and top right of the brains as far as I remember from my psychology classes.. just needs people gutsy enough to undergo more procedures like this and some appropriately knowledgeable bio-scientists and robotics geeks to develop something that is going to provide a high enough level of accuracy in mapping everything out. And hopefully being reliable enough not to make you lose all control of your body, crap yourself, and feel like you're getting repeatedly stabbed in the eyes by trees.
which is totally what she said