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Robot Controlled By Human Brain Cells

Posted by timothy on from the rat-is-a-pig-is-a-boy dept.

destinyland writes "There's a new experiment from the British researchers who created a robot controlled by cultured rat neurons. They're now using a line of human brain neurons to control robots. The neurons are placed onto a multi-electrode dish that registers the neurons' electric signals. 'Every time the robot nears an object, the electrodes generate signals to stimulate the brain. In response, the brain's output is used to drive the wheels of the robot left and right so that it avoids hitting objects. The robot has no additional control from a human or a computer — its sole means of control is from its own brain.'"

6 of 86 comments (clear)

  1. bad summary? by Thornburg · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Is it just me, or do the video and article both CLEARLY state that it's rat brain cells, not human brain cells?

    1. Re:bad summary? by Hitman_Frost · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Blame Kevin Warwick.

      He's always exaggerating his claims, including his "I'm a cyborg" nonsense.

    2. Re:bad summary? by Rogerborg · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Aaaah... "Captain Cyborg"! I can't believe this chap (or robochap as he'd describe himself) is still getting funding for his joke research. I guess Reading University don't mind being laughed at, as long as they're being talked about.

      "It's difficult to describe how frustrating it is in the field seeing this man being our spokesman," says Richard Reeve, of the AI department at Edinburgh.

      Well, quite.

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  2. Re:Does it count? by sonnejw0 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Ahh, I see you're a materialist at heart. This is true of a fully human brain as well: an action potential is just a response to a molecular-mechanical stimulus that opens ion channels to change the polarity of the neuron. What makes a human "brain" controlled?

    Truth is, there's nothing special about this robot. It basically uses rat neuron cells to propogate an electrical signal instead of full-length wires. But if you believe that, then you also believe there's nothing special about the human brain. It just responds to environmental stimuli in a predictable, yet seemingly complex way. Big deal.

  3. What does the brain do? by im_thatoneguy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What does the brain do in this robot? It sounds like all data processing and decision making is done on silicon with the brain along for the ride.

    Headline should be "Rat nerve cells get ride around lab in little cart."

  4. Re:AI? by mcgrew · · Score: 1, Insightful

    There isn't any pixie dust in neurons.

    There isn't any intelligence or emotion in bits, either. Brains aren't computers, and computers don't think. Whoever decided to call computers "thinking machines" back when a pocket calculator that took a 3 story building to house and was called a "computer" and a "thinking machine" should have been bitchslapped.

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