In the 1982 movie Firefox, Clint Eastwood was able to control the weapons of his fighter jet by using thought alone. Sure, this was science fiction at its best but the amazing part is that the US military was providing research funding for this sort of thing ten years before. Today people are controlling everything from robots to computers using brainwaves.
Research into brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) began in the 1970s but it was not until the mid-1990s that the technology reached maturity, and only in the last five years has real progress been made towards controlling computers with the mind alone. Testing first began on animals and, by 2000, monkeys were able to move a robotic arm with their minds. For instance, a monkey was able to feed itself by using a mind-controlled robotic arm. Other animals were also tested, from rats to moths.
Humans were next. In 2005 Matt Nagle, paralysed from the neck down, became the first person to control an artificial hand using a brain-computer interface thanks to a chip implanted in his brain. He was also able to control a computer cursor, open e-mail, turn on lights, operate a TV and play Pong. But it’s not just the disabled who are benefitting from brain-computer interfaces. Ordinary people are already using their brains to control computers. As of 2007, you can buy an Emotiv EPOC headset to control applications from games to an on-screen keyboard. It has 14 electrodes that monitor activity in your brain and a gyroscope that detects where your head is pointing. After the software gets used to reading your brainwaves (after it has ‘mapped your profile’), you can simply think about doing certain things, such as lifting an on-screen rock or making a cube disappear. The Headset also registers emotions and facial expressions to deliver an extra layer of control. There are several other brain-computer interface headsets out there, such as the Intendix, which allows typing via thoughts alone.
Mind control works simply by reading the neural activity in the brain by measuring electrical activity in the skull. Either sensors are placed on the skull, below the skull or are attached directly to the brain by wires, but there are many other ways of reading brainwaves. The technology is so sophisticated that scientists have been able to reproduce images seen by cats. By implanting electrodes in the brain, they were able to pick up and decode the signals in the cats’ brains to reproduce recognisable images. And all this occurred at the University of California eleven years ago. But it’s not just about controlling physical objects - ideas and emotions can be recognised as well. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University (amongst others) are at the moment decoding brain activity using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging to analyse blood flow changes in the brain in response to what people are thinking of. So, for instance if you think of a car or hear one start up, a certain pattern will show up in your brain. This is much less intrusive than implanting wires into your brain.
Intel, who have partnered up with Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon, predicts that by 2020 people will be controlling computers, TVs and cellphones via their brain waves - no more remotes, keyboards or mice. Science fiction just became reality.
Research into brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) began in the 1970s but it was not until the mid-1990s that the technology reached maturity, and only in the last five years has real progress been made towards controlling computers with the mind alone. Testing first began on animals and, by 2000, monkeys were able to move a robotic arm with their minds. For instance, a monkey was able to feed itself by using a mind-controlled robotic arm. Other animals were also tested, from rats to moths.
Humans were next. In 2005 Matt Nagle, paralysed from the neck down, became the first person to control an artificial hand using a brain-computer interface thanks to a chip implanted in his brain. He was also able to control a computer cursor, open e-mail, turn on lights, operate a TV and play Pong. But it’s not just the disabled who are benefitting from brain-computer interfaces. Ordinary people are already using their brains to control computers. As of 2007, you can buy an Emotiv EPOC headset to control applications from games to an on-screen keyboard. It has 14 electrodes that monitor activity in your brain and a gyroscope that detects where your head is pointing. After the software gets used to reading your brainwaves (after it has ‘mapped your profile’), you can simply think about doing certain things, such as lifting an on-screen rock or making a cube disappear. The Headset also registers emotions and facial expressions to deliver an extra layer of control. There are several other brain-computer interface headsets out there, such as the Intendix, which allows typing via thoughts alone.
Mind control works simply by reading the neural activity in the brain by measuring electrical activity in the skull. Either sensors are placed on the skull, below the skull or are attached directly to the brain by wires, but there are many other ways of reading brainwaves. The technology is so sophisticated that scientists have been able to reproduce images seen by cats. By implanting electrodes in the brain, they were able to pick up and decode the signals in the cats’ brains to reproduce recognisable images. And all this occurred at the University of California eleven years ago. But it’s not just about controlling physical objects - ideas and emotions can be recognised as well. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University (amongst others) are at the moment decoding brain activity using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging to analyse blood flow changes in the brain in response to what people are thinking of. So, for instance if you think of a car or hear one start up, a certain pattern will show up in your brain. This is much less intrusive than implanting wires into your brain.
Intel, who have partnered up with Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon, predicts that by 2020 people will be controlling computers, TVs and cellphones via their brain waves - no more remotes, keyboards or mice. Science fiction just became reality.
Informative post. It would have been good to consider the moral issues of thought controlled technology for military applications, reading dreams (Inception), as well as the ethical considerations of these kinds of tests on animal subjects.
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