Neurophilosophy

Researchers from the Biomedical Engineering Laboratory at Keio University in Japan have developed a brain-computer interface that enables users to control the movements of Second Life avatars without moving a muscle.

The device consists of a headset containing electrodes which monitor electrical activity in the motor cortex, the region of the brain involved in planning, executing and controlling movements.

All a user has to do to control his/her avatar is imagine performing various movements. The activity monitored by the headpiece is read and plotted by an electroencephalogram, which relays it to a computer running a brain wave analysis algorithm that interprets the imagined movements. A keyboard emulator then translates the data into signals which can be used to control the movements of the user’s on-screen avatar in real-time.

Below is a film clip of the device in use.

[Via Pink Tentacle]

Comments

#1 Johan
October 12, 2007

This technology is amazing, although obviously not working flawlessly at the moment. It’s going to make a big difference for the disabled.
#2 David Harmon
October 12, 2007

Yowza! Cyberspace begins to take shape at last….
#3 Amiya Sarkar
October 12, 2007

This is really interesting & encouraging too. In fact, I also wrote about this in my article ‘Rejoinder- an afterthought’. Only God knows what lies ahead!
#4 maverik
October 13, 2007

dear neurophilosophy you should indicate the source of your post when you grab news from other blogs… you know what I mean
#5 gerald spezio
October 13, 2007

Truly incredible.
#6 DuWayne
October 13, 2007

Sweet. Just read The Hacker and the Ants by Rudy Rucker about three weeks ago. This is getting close to the interfaces he describes. Just need neurostimulation to actually put the user into cyberspace and away we go.
#7 massimiliano
October 14, 2007

interesting
#8 Nomen Nescio
October 15, 2007

eh, let me know when i can replace my keyboard for text entry and editing. i spend most of my day writing on a keyboard, after all.
#9 GF
October 16, 2007

As cool as this seems, there is one small concern! If a person hooked up to that machine can have there brain signals read, translated into action, then what’s to stop the reverse.

In other words, the computer/program sending commands to influence the person!
#10 blackwater1
October 16, 2007

Just when you thought the masses could not dumb down anymore….Surprise

If you supposedly intelligent people spent half as much time in the real world called life, you might think differently, and we would probably have a better world to boot. But on the upside at least you are going to be easy to corral for us mercs. You probably won’t even hear us come in.
#11 Kabalyero
October 16, 2007

What the?!!!? Won’t that give you a headache afterwards?
#12 sal
October 17, 2007

Get ready for zombie world.
#13 Poodle
October 17, 2007

Only if youre married in SL. >.<
#14 Cark
October 17, 2007

Couldn’t training your brain to create specific brainwaves at specific sites cause cognitive changes?
#15 Lord Upright
October 18, 2007

“If you supposedly intelligent people spent half as much time in the real world called life, you might think differently, and we would probably have a better world to boot. But on the upside at least you are going to be easy to corral for us mercs. You probably won’t even hear us come in.”

The real world is making the transfer into the abstract. Avatars are an inauspicious beginning of the NEU!

Imagine:

Total cognitive mapping into electronic meta-realities based on mass imaginative participation. The only two questions remaining:

1. If we all move into an electronic world, who will keep the electricity flowing?

2. Will it matter if the electricity stops?
#16 Kerrie
October 18, 2007

It seems to me that I read about a device like this in Scientific America Mind. It helped improve the executive function of the brain in people with ADHD and other disorders that impair this function.
Besides that, it looks like a lot of fun. I have problems with my hands going numb from typing and using the mouse. I would love to try it. It would be great for anyone who has difficulty with his or her hands or coordination.
#17 Div
October 21, 2007

nubs, read nuromancer.
although the tech interface seems interesting, it sounds a litle iffy to me. The video needs better documentation. How does a technological device, know what your imagining, and the how does that impact bandwith, and refreshrates. All i have to say is chop factor on the lag, for crapy herystics, and poor designe. It might be a good thing, and it might not. “imagination” is a big word, and i can imagine alot. What about MMORPG’s like wow, and other games, how would they work with these environments, and animations.
#18 Brainedge
October 21, 2007

This the best nonsense I have heard of. Urban myth.
#19 Brian
October 22, 2007

It’s a cool new application of very old findings:

1) motor areas of the brain are very conveniently mapped out (this is nothing new: look up the homunculus)

2) planning actions leads to increased activity in corresponding motor areas (this is nothing new: look up premotor cortex and mirror neurons)

3) it is possible to record gross changes in activity in broad areas of the brain pretty quickly (this is nothing new: see nearly every device for measuring evoked-potentials).

It’s super super super cool that they’re able to get something like this to work, but for the naysayers: yes, this is a plausible device. For the “z0mg the future is here” people: no, this is not really reading your mind.
#20 Brainedge
October 26, 2007

I guess you should not confuse the visualization of motor activity in the brain with its translation into willful operation of machinery.

I know that functional MRI can tell you a lot about regional brain activity. However, turning a thought into mechanical action? Which wavelength are you talking about?

Get real!!
#21 Mo
October 26, 2007

Brainedge – research performed on monkeys over the past thirty years has determined specific patterns of electrical activity associated with the planning of movements. This takes place in the premotor cortex prior to the execution of all movements. All brain-computer interfaces exploit this; they work by reading these patterns and translating them into commands that can be used control various devices, including prosthetic limbs and wheelchairs. (See also Brian’s comment, #19.)

So which wavelength are you on? Do you know anything about neuroscience? And do you read the newspapers at all? Because just such a device was front page news in July last year.

Here’s a Nature Web Focus on BCIs.
#22 Deirdre
October 31, 2007

What a wonderful resource for people with physical disabilities that restrict their use of a computer!
#23 Kris Verburgh
November 5, 2007

Great stuff! You could see on the computer screen that it didn’t run smootly yet, but neverteless it runned!
#24 BrainEdge
November 13, 2007

My knowledge of science does not come from third rate tabloids. However, the Nature study that you have referred to, takes into account an EMBEDDED ELECTRODE in the brain.

So really you are off the chart buddy!

We are not there yet. Not with this hoax.

What is next? Time travel by year 2010?

Good Luck. And do not try to be too ‘flammish’ cuz I can do better than you. Refrain yourself from being nasty.
#25 Mo
November 13, 2007

Brainedge – so where does your knowledge of science come from? Mine comes from many years of studying.
#26 Brainedge
November 16, 2007

If you are smart enough, you can figure out from my posts. Apparently, you are too self-absorbed in your hocus-pocus.

Good Luck.
#27 alex alliison
October 6, 2009

When man steps into gods sandbox, will he sell his soul for it?

In the next few years, when a complete, neural chip comes out and is embeded in all emerging technology and we can augment or diminish, thoughts, emotions, and sensory perceptions, “we” will experience what is called paradigm shift, are we ready to have some-one be able to read
our thoughts or affect our bodys with augmented neural patterns,whether we want it or not.Who will monitor the kinder- garden gods when they come out to play.
#28 Exomnenny
February 2, 2011

Using painkilling medicines that are appropriate provides sustained benefits for people. That’s what i want to say here.