Computer-Aided ESP Transmits Binary Numbers, Slowly

High-C writes "Dr. Christopher James of the University of Southampton has demonstrated what is being termed 'Brain to Brain' communication. In binary, no less. In essence, one person imagined a binary number, which was picked up by an EEG and transmitted via the net to another PC. The received signal was displayed on LEDs flashing at two different frequencies. The receiver's EEG correctly deciphered the string, resulting in a 1:1 transmission of binary data via thought. The throughput isn't great so far, at .14 bits per second, but it's an incredibly geeky proof-of-concept all the same."

Comments

NOT BRAIN TO BRAIN

[Anonymous Coward]

There's a friggin LED in the middle.

Re:NOT BRAIN TO BRAIN

[Joce640k]

Sombody is failing to understand the "Extra Sensory" part of "ESP", ie. you're not allowed to use any of the five senses.

Besides ... if you have a radio link then why not just give them bluetooth headsets and let them talk to each other?

Not ESP

[mangu]

ESP stands for Extra Sensorial Experience, but this rig used equipment with electrical sensors. It's as much ESP as a radio that receives electromagnetic waves and plays the result in a loudspeaker.

Future applications

[Loomismeister]

I give this 5 years before we start turning appliances on with our minds. MMM I want some coffee = BAM coffee starts being made!

Re:Future applications

[causality]

The problem has already been solved by the brain. Although we have all sorts of thoughts going on all the time, we only act on a few of them.

You'll have the problem anew if you come up with machines that interpret mental activity. A mouse and keyboard, after all, need to be acted upon. A machine that takes brainwaves for input is an input device with no such constraints.

Re:Future applications

[Anonymous Coward]

The arm moving the mouse is "a machine that takes brainwaves for input."

Mind-Machine Interfaces

[selven]

Just imagine how useful these could be to disabled people.

Re:Mind-Machine Interfaces

[Hurricane78]

I just read your comment as:

Just imagine how useful these could be to disable people.

...and there we have the evil flipside of the coin.

Sorry...

bah, that's nothing

[jipn4]

and transmits them to the second user's brain through flashing an LED lamp

Bah, that's nothing. When I talk to my wife, I transmit my brain impulses through air, simply by flapping my tongue, and it is transmitted to her brain via vibrations in thin air! Isn't it amazing? ESP and all?

Re:bah, that's nothing

[rvw]

Bah, that's nothing. When I talk to my wife, I transmit my brain impulses through air, simply by flapping my tongue, and it is transmitted to her brain via vibrations in thin air! Isn't it amazing? ESP and all?

Wife, flapping tongue, vibrations... Man that's way too much for us simple slashdotters to handle in one sentence. We prefer flashing LEDs mind you!

Re:Useless.

[PopeRatzo]

At .14 bps, people had better get able to do Huffman encoding in their heads real fast.

Because god knows new technological applications never get any faster than they do at conception.

Re:Useless.

[ShakaUVM]

>>Because god knows new technological applications never get any faster than they do at conception.

God also knows that technologies making little LED lights blink will probably never be able to sustain a real time voice communication.

Re:Useless.

[soren202]

God also knows that new technology never stretches beyond it's original setup as it matures in age.