Slashdot Mirror
Device Reads Messages From Surface of the Brain
Al writes "Technology Review has a story about a start-up company that has developed a more-accurate and less-invasive way to read a patient's thoughts. Neurolutions, based in St Louis, has developed a small implanted device that translates signals recorded from the surface of the brain into computer commands. The device, which is less invasive than implants and more accurate than scalp electrodes, uses a grid of electrodes placed directly on the surface of the brain to monitor electrical activity. This technology is currently used to find the origin of seizures in patients with uncontrolled epilepsy before surgery. But the company says it could also help paralyzed patients control a computer and perhaps prosthetic limbs using their thoughts. Tests involving more than 20 patients have shown that people can quickly learn to move a cursor on a computer screen using their brain activity."
If they get a cursor to follow my eyes i'll wield the scalpel myself!
For a lot of Internet uses it'd just read a one word message.
"Vacant".
More stories like this please.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
When this becomes a standard human input device...I don't want it. How will you explain when your browser suddenly navigates to your favourite porn site.
We can already let blind people see by connecting cameras to their tongues. If this sort of technique becomes easier/safer, it could be used for any sort of human/machine interface. Prosthetic limbs are only the beginning...
I hope this does not have nasty side effects like increased chances of tumors...
A cat can't teach a dog to bark.
Non invasive brain interfaces is nothing new. Here's a video of a HL2 mod where you're using your mind to pick up objects and throw them at other players. The question is if the mind reading is accurate enough to actually control a mouse pointer efficiently or reliably start macros (voice recognition style).
How much longer till we can figure out how our brain "codes" things then exploit it for our own benefit? Just think about it, custom-made drugs to make it seem like you are flying, fighting a dragon, more epic than any video game imaginable, all while being perfectly controlled with little to no side effects. Or take a pill and have the entire library of congress memorized. I wonder how much longer this will take.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
I do this all the time.
When someone finds my porn stash, I immediatly "investigate" this hack attempt to use my disk space and network bandwidth, only to find my favorite trojan in a hidden directory and an open telnet to port 616. "Looky there, those bastards" I say.
When someone finds a porn sight, I just tell them I was looking for information on Dr. Laura's college years when it hijacked me to these pictures of Mr. Schlessinger posing naked to a friend. Then there's always Renee Zellwegger I could blame for being impotent.
"Hey, these are my anatomy pictures from the CDC: I was looking for disease dispersal documents, not ladies and gents with active noticeable Herpes"
"You shouldn't look into tattling to someone on my studies just because you can't accept these facts with your childish reasoning. If these bother you, then don't interrupt someone else or trying to give false explanations on their use; they're not yours to discuss."
"Those are my Psychology-class cue cards on the humanistic approach to sexual fads; I know their cartoons, but that is to prove the relation of technology as did people dream in Black and White images before there were Color Televisions. My thesis is on compeling the brain to dream in cartoon imagery. Leave my stash of Hash alone and Magic Mushrooms alone, please."
I WOULD HAVE to say that ALL METHODS OF thought READING are INVASIVE.
"More-accurate and less-invasive" is misleading, since the thing that it is "more accurate" than is not the same thing it is "less invasive" than. It is more accurate than the minimally-invasive electrodes-on-the-scalp method, and less-invasive than the more accurate electrodes-implanted-into-the-brain method.
It is, likewise, less accurate than the electrodes-in-the-brain method, and more invasive than the electrodes-on-the-scalp method, so it would be as accurate (and as hyperbolic, in the opposite direction) as TFS to call it a "less-accurate and more-invasive" method as it was to call it a "more-accurate and less-invasive" method (simply switching which existing method it was compared to for accuracy and which it was compared to for invasiveness.)
It would be most accurate (and not at all hyperbolic) to call it a method which is intermediate between two existing methods in terms of both accuracy and invasiveness.
Old. Google up "Brain gate". Hell, even wired.com has had articles on this.
And it is a bit misleading to say that moving a cursor accross a computer screen is the equivanlent to reading someones thoughts.
Quote:
developed a small implanted device that translates signals recorded from the surface of the brain into computer commands. The device, which is less invasive than implants
How's that again?
I suppose I could break down read TFA.....
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
The potential abuses of this sort of device are many.
* Policeman A to Policeman B: "Check this out! Just as fun as a Tazer, but no physical contact required!" (Points government-issued remote control at random passerby and presses button)
* Prosecutor in courtroom to policeman on the witness stand: "And what was it about Mr. Jones which caused you to arrest him?" Policeman: "My government-issued Thought Interceptor Display showed me that he was *thinking* about robbing a bank. And, he also thought about the Pope, the damn, stinking Catholic -- everybody knows what *they* are like!"
* Supervisor at work, viewing a screen while speaking to his/her subordinate: "So, Bill, what do you *really* think of my new policies?"
* NSA/DIA/FBI/TLA agent to terrified detainee: "Mr. Jones, you were the only one who had access to those classified documents whose movements are unaccounted for. The contents of those documents are now in the hands of the . Who have you been talking to?"
Detainee: "Nobody... no-one.... I didn't do anything, I didn't... oh, my God! My neural interface unit must have been scanned!"
Agent: "A likely story. Take him away!"
* Smiling man with a laptop stands near the polls. A voter comes out and is given a media exit interview, and says (twitching), "Yes... Candidate-Johnson-is-the-best-candidate. I-love-candidate-Johnson. Johnson-has-the-welfare-of-the-people-in-mind-at-all-times."
* Doctor to patient who is physically restrained, but continues to writhe madly: "Mr. Smith, I can't find any biological reason for these spasm. Have you installed the latest code patch flash into your Model 43 Neural Interface Unit?"
Yeah, it's mostly tin-foil-hat tallk, but still possible.
Actually, I think the last scenario is the most likely. Who would you trust to write and verify correct code for a device which interfaced directly to your brain?
Technology the already exists, and has for a relatively long time, can be used to let some paralyzed patients communicate through computers. The subject of one study by Brown University and Massachussets General Hospital in 2006, Matthew Nagle, preformed all the functions listed in the article. I'm waiting for the mind-control implants
... for the world is hollow and...brZAP...I...ZAP....give up....
#Computers do not appreciate sarcasm
does this have any interrogation use?
Neurolutions, based in St Louis has developed a small implanted device that translates signals recorded from the surface of the brain into computer commands. The device, which is less invasive than implants and more accurate that scalp electrodes, uses a grid of electrodes placed directly on the surface of the brain to monitor electrical activity
Awesome! They developed an implant which is less invasive than implants!
Next up, a duck that quacks louder than a duck!
This makes me think of the capped people in the Tripods trilogy.
In the books, aliens had taken over earth and used these caps that melded a mesh into the head that would render people docile and subservient so they could be used as slaves.
--Won't that be grand? Computers and the programs will start thinking and the people will stop. - Dr. Walter Gibbs
i'm getting this as soon as they add drug simulation functionality.
What in all your reading of The Terminal Man, has ever given you the slightest impression that this device is a good idea?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Am I the only one see truncated green border around the posts? I see this on my MAC and Linux machines. It started happening about a week ago.
Thanks Sheldon!
The device, which is less invasive than implants and more accurate that scalp electrodes, uses a grid of electrodes placed directly on the surface of the brain to monitor electrical activity.
How is having to put an entire grid of electrodes on the surface of the brain less invasive than an implant?
this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. -- Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
I also had trouble parsing this:
Laying an electrocorticogram array (that's what they're using -- it's not new) on the surface of the brain requires removing a section of the scalp, skull and dura mater. There's nothing about it that's not invasive as well as dangerous. Single cortical or deep electrodes can be put in through very small drilled holes. The former requires a full neurosurgical suite/team. The latter can be done in a clinic visit if localization isn't critical, or else in a CT or MR scanner with no more invasive electrode technology than the clinic version. The draw back to implanted electrodes is that inserting them into proximity of the neurons of interest can cause them to die off immediately, and will cause them to die off eventually.
Both are unnecessary for the application. In 1994 a researcher working at Radford University with Karl Pribram developed an EEG analysis program that could recognize various shapes, sizes and colors (various combinations thereof) of objects both seen and only internally visualized, with a 95% accuracy. Such accuracy among the many permutations of possible signals could very easily translate into control signals sent to another device. Fully designed but not built around this technology was such a control device intended to run an 8 stepper motor robotic arm using a standard parallel printer port. Since it rests on the scalp, an EEG electrode such as we used here is not invasive in the least. Well, the sticky glue electrode paste necessary to keep the electrode on and conducting for several hours tend to pull out hair, but that's annoying and slightly painful, but not invasive.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
I mean, really.
September 2011: Looking for Cocoa/iOS work in Boston area Cocoa Programmer Quincy, MA
Don't let your mind wander during setup, or you'll end up having to think of your grandmother riding a unicycle in order to shut down your computer.
Dead on! Buy this dragon a beer.
I tried this device one time. The only message it could read from the surface of my brain was "Squiggle"
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 is the magic number.
As I understand it, the main problem with implants that receive signals is that a layer of defensive glial cells forms around electrodes left in the brain. These cells act as electrical insulators and decrease the strength of the signal that can be picked up. How does this grid system mitigate this problem?
I think the use of positive hyperbole in TFS is justified in cases like these, where we're discussing an almost-universally good thing.
Nobody's going to use this device in instances where a conventional EEG would be sufficiently accurate (well, I hope), but they might use it if EEG is too inaccurate and but conventional implants would be overkill. What they've done is given neurologists a choice, which is something that's generally accepted as being a good thing (in the absence of other factors).
The equivalent car metaphor for your comment would be calling hybrids more pollutive that solar cars and less powerful than gasoline.
There's nothing wrong with this. Just ask the Borg.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
that with the state the American economy is in, we could afford a native English speaker to write these summaries.
Neurolutions, based in St Louis has developed a small implanted device that translates signals recorded from the surface of the brain into computer commands. The device, which is less invasive than implants ...
And you would get just as addicted as you would with real drugs. It might not have the ongoing costs that drugs can have but it'd create all sorts of problems - potentially.
Will it work with my Atari 2600? I have a lot of mindlink games I want to play!
I also had trouble parsing this:
That's because the summary was poor. What they meant was "a small device implanted on the surface of the brain that ... is less invasive than devices implanted deep in the brain".
biology is ripe with code/hardware that has been running for billions of years, (eg ribosomes). I imagine that maintaining backwards compatibility will be something of an issue.
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Seriously, folks. When are you ever going to learn. Seems like every week I read one of these stories about computers reading thoughts...
There's a major misconception about what these technologies do. It **IS** thought control, but that isn't the same thing as reading thoughts. No one is amazed if I move a cursor by pushing my finger against a joystick. These new brain interfaces are just a new kind of joystick with a different physical interface technology. Similar interface technologies have been demonstrated with galvanic skin response, but no one would argue that we're reading your thoughts through wires attached to your fingers...
This isn't to say the technologies aren't cool and advanced. They can allow hands-free control for situations where an operator needs both hands or where an individual may not have use of their hands due to various handicaps. However, these technologies can in no way read thoughts for one very simple reason. Before we can build a technology to read thoughts, we first have to understand how thoughts are represented, organized, and integrated into conscious 'streams' in the brain. We ain't there yet!
We Slashdot readers better be careful. If they ever decide to embed this technology into tin foil, we're all in trouble.
i'm going to become rich and famous after i invent a device that allows you to stab people in the face over the internet A means to accomplish a device to stab people over the internet.
Let me know when I can buy a Jaguar HAR!
-zaggynl
"More-accurate and less-invasive" is misleading, since the thing that it is "more accurate" than is not the same thing it is "less invasive" than. It is more accurate than the minimally-invasive electrodes-on-the-scalp method, and less-invasive than the more accurate electrodes-implanted-into-the-brain method.
The question I have at this point is, seeing as the only useful claim made for it (that patients can learn to control a cursor with it) has also been made for the electrodes-on-the-scalp approach, is what use is this additional accuracy? More precise cursor control? Give us some numbers, e.g. a comparitive study with the previous best.
Let's see how long their computer will last.
The day Microsoft creates a product that doesn't suck, it will be known as the Microsoft Vaccuum Cleaner!
i propose calling mind-machine interface "Psionics". It's consistent with avionics and easier to say than protoculture.
Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!
.... by Larry Niven. His first SF short story, I believe. Space miner has catastrophic accident, his CNS is salvaged and connected to a ship which has a breakdown while visiting Venus. A good read; I remember it as one of my early favorites to entice people to get interested in SF.
Actually, I think the last scenario is the most likely. Who would you trust to write and verify correct code for a device which interfaced directly to your brain?
This is why you need to learn to encrypt your thoughts.
Though to tell you the truth I can only manage thinking in ROT13 before I get a headache.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
A one-click workaround is to click on the "Change" button in the "Comment Threshold" form right under the article. Then the headlines all show up white-on-green again. It makes the article disappear, but hey, by the time you get to reading comments you've already read the article (uh... right?)
Still... a white-on-white stylesheet bug? In 2009?
You shall see a cow on the roof of a cotton house.
Oh.
Unless you were talking about implants on yourself.
*shudder*
Go play with yourself indeed.