UW Researchers Demonstrate First Direct Communication Between Human Brains 154
An anonymous reader writes "Opening a fascinating set of ethical and legal issues, researchers at UW Seattle have demonstrated the first device to allow direct communication between two humans' brains. Effectively, they allowed a subject to play a video game with another subject's fingers. For now, the communication is uni-directional, though they intend to extend it to bi-directional. EEG sensors are attached to a subject's motor cortex to detect 'motor imagery' — imagined hand movement, in this case. That activity is translated and sent over a computer network where it triggers a Transcranial Magnetic Stimulator (TMS) located over Subject 2's motor cortex. Effectively, Subject 1 imagines moving their hand, and Subject 2's hand moved."
Won't use it until my brain discloses it's source (Score:5, Interesting)
Have you considered the very real posibility that brain may not have proper mandatory authorization and intput verification and anyone with local access can say stop your heart?
Prerecorded impulses? (Score:5, Interesting)
With further development ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Would this help people with locked-in syndrome? Would they be able to use someone else's hand to act? to communicate?
Which one of the two people would have to have Parkinson's to make the resulting hand movements irregular?
Etc., Etc.
-- hendrik