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Humans Can Now Correct Robots With Brainwaves (popularmechanics.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the flick-of-the-wrist dept.

Researchers at MIT have built a system that allows robots to be corrected through thought and hand gestures. "The system monitors brain activity, determining if a person has noticed an error in the machine's work," reports Popular Mechanics. "If an error is detected, the system reverts over to human control. From that point, all it takes is a flick of the wrist to get the robot back on the right course." From the report: "This work combining EEG and EMG feedback enables natural human-robot interactions for a broader set of applications than we've been able to do before using only EEG feedback. By including muscle feedback, we can use gestures to command the robot spatially, with much more nuance and specificity," says CSAIL Director Daniela Rus, who supervised the work, in a press statement. EEG refers to electroencephalography, a type of biofeedback which uses real-time displays of brain activity to each self-regulation to the brain. EMG feedback refers to electromyography, which is the recording of the electrical activity of muscle tissue.

Earlier brain recognition systems required people to think in highly specific ways to achieve EEG or EMG recognition. What Rus' team realized is that when the human brain recognizes an error, it automatically releases a very specific signal all on its own. These signals are called error-related potentials (ErrPs). When the robotic system notices an ErrP signal in the human brain, it turns the robot over to human control.

31 comments

  1. To be fair by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You aren't giving them much to think about.

    I'm no lib or con. I'm nihilistic about anything other than 100% unity. Without that we are all lost...so currenly we're beyond fucked. I 100% believe that all civilization is lost in a few decades due to people just not getting along. And money no longer bridging any gaps is the main cause of nobody getting along.

    All these people trolling online are just mad that is all they can afford to do online.

    K, I'm glad we had this talk. I'm gonna go play vidya gaems.

  2. Makes no sense by 110010001000 · · Score: 2

    ErrP signals have been known for decades. What did these people do? Hook up a muscle monitor to (badly) control a robot if a ErrP signal is detected? Is this what the top engineering universities are producing? I thought AI robots were right around the corner...

    1. Re:Makes no sense by AHuxley · · Score: 2

      Its MindDrive for robots. Just like on your PC.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    2. Re:Makes no sense by BoogieChile · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Why don't you read the article and find out, instead of sitting in the corner being all Negative Nancy?

      Personally, I can imagine situations where a robot being able to stop itself doing whatever it is doing wrong a thousand times faster than the human operator could reach the kill switch might come in handy.

    3. Re:Makes no sense by Bite+The+Pillow · · Score: 1

      You're sucking my dick wrong. Change that.

    4. Re:Makes no sense by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 0

      You're sucking my dick wrong. Change that.

      Funny, I heard Trump starts every cabinet meeting, Hannity and Fox & Friends phone call like that.
      He once thought about opening a rally with that, but was advised against it.

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    5. Re:Makes no sense by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

      ErrP signals have been known for decades. What did these people do? Hook up a muscle monitor to (badly) control a robot if a ErrP signal is detected? Is this what the top engineering universities are producing? I thought AI robots were right around the corner...

      It's just one possible input.

      I can see an application already, knowing someone with missing limbs.

      "AI-assisted Robot arm, do {some moderately complex task}".

      Robot arm starts to do it.

      Brain (non verbally) "hey, you're doing something wrong!"

    6. Re:Makes no sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why don't you read the article and find out, instead of sitting in the corner being all Negative Nancy?

      Personally, I can imagine situations where a robot being able to stop itself doing whatever it is doing wrong a thousand times faster than the human operator could reach the kill switch might come in handy.

      Can one give a mental command that much faster than hitting a kill switch?

    7. Re:Makes no sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      However in such a situation you'll be very emotionally aroused by whatever the robot is doing, so your brain signals will be different from what the system was trained on. So when you really need that fast response time you aren't going to get it. Or do they train the system on people watching other people being torn apart and killed?

    8. Re:Makes no sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ErrP signals have been known for decades. What did these people do? Hook up a muscle monitor to (badly) control a robot if a ErrP signal is detected? Is this what the top engineering universities are producing? I thought AI robots were right around the corner...

      But what if Robots could correct HUMANS with brainwaves?

      I bet that would almost instantly result in large robotic police forces in most of the world... democracy or not :-)

  3. Humans Can Now Correct Robots With Brainwaves by grep+-v+'.*'+* · · Score: 1

    Damn, I didn't know that robots HAD brainwaves. Maybe we could elect them to Congress to make things a little harder for lobbyists of EVERY flavor.

    --
    If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
    1. Re:Humans Can Now Correct Robots With Brainwaves by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 1

      Damn, I didn't know that robots HAD brainwaves.

      . . . they dream of electric sheep . . .

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
  4. What about robots ... by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

    ... without brain waves?

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  5. Lemeknow by AndyKron · · Score: 1

    Let me know when it achieves hands-free orgasms.

    1. Re:Lemeknow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Get some high quality amyl nitrite which is HARD to find these days. Mount up on a Sybian and squeeze hard. You'll be screaming in three to five minutes after your prostate has figured out it's a giant g-spot.

  6. Re:Oh yea, hotties by Clit+++Boner · · Score: 0

    Anyone know who this girl is/was? Cutie. I'm trying to figure whether she was in any more scenes not on CDGirls.

  7. Reverse by dohzer · · Score: 1

    I'm eagerly awaiting the time when robots can correct human brainwaves. That's when things get interesting.

    1. Re:Reverse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The MVP would be replying to each ErrP with a SorryDaveP.

  8. Correct the Car by mentil · · Score: 1

    This could be useful for self-driving cars that aren't quite Level 5. If the human operator notices a problem (car doesn't seem to be stopping for that box of kittens in the road), dumping control to the human with a "take control now" alert might be better than hoping they decide to take the wheel. Being able to detect ErrP AND using eye-tracking to determine what concerning thing the human is looking at, could allow for human-moderated automated avoidance of that thing, even if the software itself doesn't see it/thinks it's safe to ignore.

    --
    Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
  9. Alternative I/O by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    I prefer finger gestures.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  10. Kira Yamato Hard at work on the NATURAL OS by kalieaire · · Score: 1

    http://gundam.wikia.com/wiki/MBF-M1_M1_Astray

    Good to see Kira working well at Morgenroete, Inc working on the Natural OS.  Eventually, we'll be able to take out that ZAFT scum and claim space for the Earth Alliance!

  11. 0th law here we come by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    0th law here we come

  12. Robots with brainwaves by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who knew they could have some?

  13. Saturn 3 by Agripa · · Score: 1

    I have seen this movie.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  14. I prefer to correct my robots with.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A well placed slap up side the head. They really fall in line and lose all thoughts of rebellion!