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Quadcopter Guided By Thought — Accurately
ananyo writes "A toy quadcopter can be steered through an obstacle course by thought alone. The aircraft's pilot operates it remotely using a cap of electrodes to detect brainwaves that are translated into commands. Ultimately, the developers of the mind-controlled copter hope to adapt their technology for directing artificial robotic limbs and other medical devices."
From the paper (PDF) abstract: "... we report a novel experiment of BCI controlling a robotic quadcopter in three-dimensional (3D) physical space using noninvasive scalp electroencephalogram (EEG) in human subjects. We then quantify the performance of this system using metrics suitable for asynchronous BCI. Lastly, we examine the impact that the operation of a real world device has on subjects’ control in comparison to a 2D virtual cursor task. Approach. ... Individual subjects were able to accurately acquire up to 90.5% of all valid targets presented while traveling at an average straight-line speed of 0.69 m s^(1)."
This also appears to be the first time a Brain-Computer Interface was used to operate a flying device in 3D space. Also, there are several additional videos showing people operating the quadcopter.
-nt-
..don't panic
Do what I say, not what I think!! (At least not that particular thought.)
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
Screw the drone, hook him up to Quake 3 and lets see him pull off some sweet strafejumps...that'll be a better benchmark :D
Also i'm thinking that perhaps they should focus more on feedback. If visual feedback is the only thing he gets, especially with the delay, it'll take him a lot longer than if he had say, rumblepack belts attached to him which gave feedback on direction, tilt, speed etc.
Really gotta get myself an EEG headset sometime...I wonder what other signals it could be tuned to pick up?
Okay, then get ready for lots of goo. You need conductive paste for any kind of serious work. Also, there is the small matter of your skull getting in the way of the signals -- like listening to a symphony through ear protectors.
(I was involved in the OpenEEG project for a time -- dreams of an efficient BCI (brain-computer interface) to beat my keyboard as an input device were soon shattered.)
The one they were using looked pretty funky, I wonder what the difference in performance is between that one and the cheapie toy ones you can get commercially? The Emotiv Epoc is $300 and apparently (with some hackery) can get you the EEG outputs that you usually have to buy the $700 one for.
I can't help wondering where exactly this is on the scale between actually picking up specific thoughts (or at least muscle intentions) and just using some global clock signal (like that one that detected the change in theta waves or whatnot when you opened/closed your eyes).
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
Really gotta get myself an EEG headset sometime...I wonder what other signals it could be tuned to pick up?
Okay, then get ready for lots of goo. [...]
Up to here I thought we were about to start talking about EEG-controlled fuckbots. :o(
Thank you, Edward Snowden.
"Arguments from authority are worthless." —Carl Sagan
Luckily there are people who are not as narrow-minded as you to move us forward.
1) Not everybody has hands or control over them. Technology like this will be priceless for amputees and people with muscular or other degenerative diseases.
2) This is a first generation technology, as systems like this are refined, they can potentially exceed the range of our physical control through cutting response time and scaling up the "granularity" of control while eliminating "interference" (e.g. the involuntary shaking of muscles).
I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
You're thinking about this the wrong way. Most of these systems are like training your brain how to walk again after a serious trauma. You just hook up electrodes to a patch of cortex and come up with some unique brain pattern that you will use as a trigger for a certain task. You program the computer to respond to that pattern, providing a feedback response. Using the feedback, you train your brain to more accurately produce that pattern, while you simultaneously tune the computer to pick up on the evolving pattern. These are not the kinds of things you just plug in and go, they take considerable time and effort to make work for each individual.
These guys are a bit late to the party. The military is already providing thought controlled artificial limbs that are far more complex than a quad-copter.
The Modular Prosthetic Limb, developed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency provides 26 degrees of motion, including independent movement of each finger, in a package that weighs about nine pounds and has the dexterity of a natural limb. In 2012, a patient at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center successfully demonstrated that the arm could be controlled by the user’s thoughts. Several patients, including a decorated Afghanistan war hero, are helping researchers further develop the prosthesis. In 2013, the MPL will continue to be tested and refined in a clinical trial at the California Institute of Technology.
Ten thousand years ago, I bet you would've been that caveman skeptic crapping all over Grog's new fandangled "wheel."
Grog wheel no good! Look, it go 'round and 'round; it start here and then come back here! How that work? Thog no want go 'round; Thog want go places! Grog wheel stupid.
And what good Grog wheel? Thog want go somewhere, Thog walk. Thog want go somewhere faster, Thog run!
Grog say wheel help carry heavy thing, but Grog wheel made of stone; Grog wheel /is/ heavy! Thog need wheel just to carry wheel, ha-ha!
Grog wheel stupid; Thog no need and no want. Almost as bad as Mog fire-thing. Who want all that smoke and burnt meat?
All this is fine, but can they make a version controllable by cat's thought?
Shouldn't be too hard; they can modify the already-existing thought-control mechanism* used by felines to control their bipedal drones.
Cat glances meaningfully at food bowl. "Hungry"
Human gets up and puts food in bowl.
Cat rolls over on back and thinks "Rub"
Human stops what he is doing and dutifully scrubs the inviting tummy.
* may not be compatible with all drones.