Controlling an android robot with just your brain.....what is the potential in this? At first I thought of the movie "Surrogates" where in the future everyone stays in their homes all safe and such while they go about their daily lives via an android robot surrogate.
But this could actually be used for people in the vegetative state. People who can't move their body or do anything at all could be able to do things via an android robot surrogate. Of course it seems we are very far from that, but this is a start and it has potential.
Yes, I know that most people who are in the vegetative state are consider to have no brain activity. But they have recently figured out that is actually false!
"First, patients are asked to imagine they are playing tennis. This prompts an increase in blood-flow to an area at the front of the brain called the premotor cortex, which can be detected by the scan.
Patients are then told to picture themselves walking around different rooms in their house. This activates an entirely separate area of the brain, the parahippocampal gyrus, situated in the middle.
They are then asked a question and told to imagine they are playing tennis if the answer is no and if yes, to pretend they are walking round the house."
You can read more about this below:
Man in vegetative state communicates with power of thought
And here is a video for controlling robots with thought:
[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QOsUw9dRgIA#![/video]
But this could actually be used for people in the vegetative state. People who can't move their body or do anything at all could be able to do things via an android robot surrogate. Of course it seems we are very far from that, but this is a start and it has potential.
Yes, I know that most people who are in the vegetative state are consider to have no brain activity. But they have recently figured out that is actually false!
"First, patients are asked to imagine they are playing tennis. This prompts an increase in blood-flow to an area at the front of the brain called the premotor cortex, which can be detected by the scan.
Patients are then told to picture themselves walking around different rooms in their house. This activates an entirely separate area of the brain, the parahippocampal gyrus, situated in the middle.
They are then asked a question and told to imagine they are playing tennis if the answer is no and if yes, to pretend they are walking round the house."
You can read more about this below:
Man in vegetative state communicates with power of thought
And here is a video for controlling robots with thought:
[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QOsUw9dRgIA#![/video]
