Posted on 06/22/2007 7:29:21 AM PDT by gridlock
HATOYAMA, Japan (AP) -- Forget the clicker: A new technology in Japan could let you control electronic devices without lifting a finger simply by reading brain activity.
The "brain-machine interface" developed by Hitachi analyzes slight changes in the brain's blood flow and translates brain motion into electric signals.
A cap connects by optical fibers to a mapping device, which links, in turn, to a toy train set via a control computer and motor during one recent demonstration at Hitachi's Advanced Research Laboratory in Hatoyama, just outside Tokyo.
(snip)
Underlying Hitachi's brain-machine interface is a technology called optical topography, which sends a small amount of infrared light through the brain's surface to map out changes in blood flow.
Although brain-machine interface technology has traditionally focused on medical uses, makers like Hitachi and Japanese automaker Honda Motor have been racing to refine the technology for commercial application.
Hitachi's scientists are set to develop a brain TV remote controller letting users turn a TV on and off or switch channels by only thinking.
(snip)
"We are thinking of various kinds of applications," project leader Hideaki Koizumi said. "Locked-in patients can speak to other people by using this kind of brain-machine interface."
snip
Any brain-machine interface device for widespread use would be "a little further down the road," Koizumi said.
He added, however, that the technology is entertaining in itself and could easily be applied to toys.
"It's really fun to move a model train just by thinking," he
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
Activating the brain's frontal cortex -- by doing sums
or singing a song -- is what makes the train run,
says a researcher.
They first tried using Democrat liberals, but there was no response whatsoever with the toys.
I know nothing about this but it seems like something you could train yourself to do and improve over time.
Wearing a cap with some other gang’s colors is going to cause trouble. Don’t go outside wearing this! Unless you have it linked to your handgun.
But do you have to think in Russian?
Who’s going to be first to market this attached to sex toys?
Diembodied voice of Brian Kieth w/ Bad Russian Accent: "You must think in Japanese!"
Clint Eastwood: Oh, Hell! Just let me ditch this thing!
Coming Soon: Brain Controlled FReeping!
Jeez... I could have some fun.
Sex industries are always early adopters of new technology. Algore may have invented the Internet, but sex sites provided 90% of the early traffic!
The First Generation Brain Control Unit allows the woman to control an electronic device through her brain waves.
The Second Generation Brain Control Unit allows one to control the woman's brain waves though an electronic device...
The Second Generation unit will outsell the First Generation unit 100 to 1.
Can you make the TV levitate? Now that would be cool.
That’s the one thing I didn’t get — by the time he figured out what he wanted to do, thought about it in Russian, them mumbled it for the audience, couldn’t he have simply pushed a button?
It worked much better in the book. In the book he had the Russian Firefox on his tail, and was desperately wishing for a weapon that he could fire back at the pursuing plane. The Firefox interpreted his desire and deployed the decoy flares at just the right time to have them sucked into the air intakes of the pursuing plane.
This whole "thinking in Russian" thing was a movie device, because you needed a verbal cue for the viewer. But it made the whole technology make no sense.
The Rudybots will then be silenced!
Hehehe, think of the ZOT possibilities...
Hmmm...I thought that toys have always been brain-controlled. Except they’ve required you to get off your duff and do something, or at least work on your hand-eye coordination.
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