The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has reported a successful research accomplishment in which two Madison, Wisconsin patients, via electrodes implanted directly on their brains, were able to control a computer cursor and play a basic video game just by thinking about it.
Doctors last month and in June removed a portion of two patients’ skulls and implanted electrodes on the surfaces of their brains. Wires from the electrodes were plugged into a computer, and the patients spent around two weeks learning how to control the cursor with their thoughts.
One patient was able to play a modified game of Pong. You can read the full article at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
There’s something about that that is just plain…wrong. :eek: What will be next? Implant the clicker for a garage door in your head so all you’ll have to do is think about opening the door as you get home and then it automatically opens. How about the TV remote, the ceiling fan, the coffee maker, or the…never mind, I could keep going! :ahh:
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Something just occured to me. If this idea does take off and, say in 20 years or so, imagine what impact it could have on FIRST. There won’t be anymore joysticks or other driver controls for that matter, all the drivers on your team will have chips implanted in them to control the robot out on the field. :rolleyes:
I recall a similar experiment done on monkeys. They implanted something like 120 wires into the brain and then sat the monkey behind a glass window and gave him a pair of joysticks. The wires from his brain were hooked to a computer. The joysticks were hooked directly to a robotic arm. He had to complete some sort of task like picking up a ball and depositing it in a cup. While he was making the motions with the joysticks, the computer read and recorded the signals coming from the wires implanted in the brain. After a while the computer was able to map certain brain signals to certain joystick movements. After the mapping was complete, they disconected the joysticks completely and had the computer move the robotic arm based on the brainwaves and mappings. The monkey still performed the same task by just thinking about it. He still had the joysticks but they were not controlling anything, only his brain was.
This is really neat. There are a lot of things that this technology could be used for. Soemthing I just thought of, was what if you could record your thoughts…you would never have to worry about forgetting anything. Just have something like a palm pilot with a lot of storage room and be able to search your thoughts, because I know I don’t remeber everything I think about…sometimes I remember things that I had earlier tried to remember but couldn’t at that tims and wish I was able to think of it when I first wanted to. This technology would be greatly enhanced with wireless technology added in, but then you would run the risk of someone “hijacking” your thoughts, which could become a huge problem. But I think this technology overall will prove to be greatly helpful.
This technology could be much more useful for quadriplegic patients than it could be for the average forgetful person. Imagine if you didn’t have to use a retainer in your mouth to move a mechanical chair. Or, if you could control devices to feed yourself, or rotate in a bed to prevent bedsores. It could allow those who don’t have the same abilities to have the same independence - the same freedom.
That said, this technology scares the crap out of me. It’s absolutely rediculous to use such amazing technology to further the laziness in this country. Where will it end?
Wow, they tested it on humans now? Last school year I wrote a school article on that technology being tested monkeys. Using a multi-electrode cap, the researchers recorded the monkey’s brain waves that correspond to an action. The monkey learned to control a robotic arm mentally by first using a joystick to move a cursor across a computer screen. Electrodes in the monkey’s brain recorded the command signals that moved the monkey’s arm. The signals were sent to a computer that compared them to the joystick’s motions to predict the actual movements from the brain’s signals. After the computer was familiar with the brain patterns of the monkey, it used the signals as opposed to the joystick to move the cursor. The monkey realized this and simply used its thoughts to control the cursor.
Later, they changed it so the joystick controlled a robotic arm in the other room (which moved the cursor) instead of controlling the cursor directly The same method was applied and soon the monkey learned to move the robot arm with its thoughts.
If I remember correctly, the technology was aimed to help those disabled, not simply to have fun. (Information from Popular Science February 2004)