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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.'"

7 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.

      --
      If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
    3. Re:bad summary? by mcmire · · Score: 4, Informative

      There are two experiments involved here, one using rat neurons and one using human neurons. The article is badly written -- it first introduces the two experiments, talks about the rat-neuron experiment for a bit (that's what the video refers to) and then abruptly segues to the human-neuron experiment (which there is no video for). Only the last three paragraphs are really about the human one. Looks like it's the same setup as the rat one though.

  2. Alas its' first words were... by gijoel · · Score: 4, Funny

    Ex-TeR-MiN-AtE! Ex-TeR-MiN-AtE!

  3. Warwick has his own reality TV show by RandCraw · · Score: 5, Interesting

    In 1998, Kevin Warwick implants a trivial RF resonator in his arm (the sticky plastic strip that warns Walmart that someone is stealing a pair of socks). He contacts the press, calls himself a cyborg, and gets tenure at Reading U.

    In 2001, he replaces his implant with an RFID tag, and calls the press again, and says, "Look at me, look at me! Now I'm an ACTIVE cyborg!" And he becomes a full professor at Reading U.

    And now Warwick gets 300,000 neurons to produce a simple binary response (go straight vs turn). He calls the press again, and says, "Look at what I can do just by waving my arm".

    Jackass. Worse, the media can't tell the difference between poseurs like him and real scientists like Sebastian Thrun or Rod Brooks.

  4. 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."