Ants Used For Mind-Controlled Robotic Limbs

mr sanjeev writes "Australian researchers are reducing the divide between science fiction and science reality by bringing the development of mind-controlled robotic limbs a few steps closer. Even the most fertile science fiction imagination might not see a link between the behavior of ant colonies and the development of lifelike robotic limbs, but that is the straightforward mathematical reality of research underway at the University of Technology, Sydney. The technology mimics the myoelectric signals used by the central nervous system (CNS) to control muscle activity. Artificial intelligence researchers have long used the complex interactions between ants to construct a pattern recognition formula to identify bioelectric signals. PhD student Rami Khushaba said 'swarm-intelligence' allows scientists to understand the body's electrical signals and use the knowledge to create a robotic prosthetic device that can be operated by human thought."

Comments

Meh.

[SatanicPuppy]

The problem is, they spend so much time trying to get it to interface with the nerves in the same way as the original limb. Ideally, sure, we'd like it to go that way. But that's a long way off.

If they could just get it to read some signals, any signals, the methods for controlling it could be learned by the recipient.

Humans are born with the capability of mastering our limbs; fine motor coordination isn't something we're born with, it's learned. Why try to write software to do that?

Re:One thing is for certain there is no stopping t

[Verdatum]

The entire reason this article was posted to slashdot was so that people could make this reference, and feel damn clever about it.

Diskworld reference

[SnarfQuest]

Does it stop working if they remove the teddy bear?

Well I for one...

[NoobixCube]

Welcome our new thought-controlled battle mech piloting ant overlords. Why would they stop at human size, when they could become 60 feet tall and kick over OUR homes?!