Controlling Computers With the Brain 253
Killam0n takes note of a story in CNN Money on progress in controlling computers via brainwaves. From an aspirin-sized implant a quadriplegic is now using to play computer games, the article extrapolates out to a near future in which we will all be wearing headband computers and IM'ing one another as if telepathically. "Two years ago, a quadriplegic man started playing video games using his brain as a controller. That may just sound like fun and games for the unfortunate, but really, it spells the beginning of a radical change in how we interact with computers — and business will never be the same. Someday, keyboards and computer mice will be remembered only as medieval-style torture devices for the wrists. All work — emails, spreadsheets, and Google searches — will be performed by mind control."
Could we come up with articles a little older? (Score:5, Informative)
Because someone has to say it.... (Score:4, Informative)
Dream bigger (Score:5, Informative)
The next craze for new parents (Score:3, Informative)
The time will come when children that didn't get "Baby's First Brain Mouse" in their first few months of life will be at a scholastic disadvantage to those that did.
no, you fools, wrong Russia joke! (Score:3, Informative)
And on-topic, there's some totally amazing shit going down in cybernetics these days.
http://www.sigmorobot.com/technology/news/toast_b
This guy here has thought-controlled limbs. The nerves that controlled his arms have been rewired into muscles in his pecs and the arm reads the twitches there and turns that into motion.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5140090.stm [bbc.co.uk]
Limbs can now be attached directly to the skeleton.
Artificial muscles (sorry btech fans, they aren't called myomar)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4817848.stm [bbc.co.uk]
Advanced bionic hand
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4225896.stm [bbc.co.uk]
Article featuring Claudia Mitchell as well as Jesse Sullivan, both real-life cyborgs
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,
We're really making some fantastic advances in this field. The major future hurtles will be better feedback from the limb, getting it to run on blood glucose so a separate power supply is not needed, and making the whole affair less bulky and more natural. The ideal goal here would be a limb that would pass for perfectly natural, both for the observer and the amputee.