Ultrasound Reads Monkey Brains, Opening New Way To Control Machines With Thought

sciencehabit shares a report from Science Magazine: The most advanced mind-controlled devices being tested in humans rely on tiny wires inserted into the brain. Now researchers have paved the way for a less invasive option. They've used ultrasound imaging to predict a monkey's intended eye or hand movements -- information that could generate commands for a robotic arm or computer cursor. If the approach can be improved, it may offer people who are paralyzed a new means of controlling prostheses without equipment that penetrates the brain.

A key next step will be to use the computer predictions in real time to guide a robot hand or a cursor. But ultrasound could still guide a robotic arm, as long as a computer could quickly direct the arm's fine motor movements from the user's cue. The team foresees many future improvements to the technique. "The technology is absolutely not at its full potential yet." The study has been published in the journal Neuron.

Does it work on...

[h33t l4x0r]

Chilled Monkey Brains? [youtube.com]

Tin foil hat

[sosume]

I'm guessing that metal will protect against this type of scan. Finally, proof that my tin foil hat protects against our mind-reading overlords!

Re:

[Black Parrot]

Dontcha know that foil hats just focus their mind rays?

Re:

[Errol backfiring]

You seem to have forgotten the first record players. A sort of tinfoil hat was used to amplify the sound.

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[JeffOwl]

(I know it was a joke but...) From the report it sounds like to get the resolution they need, they have to put the transducer inside the skull. That means opening up the skull to do it. So your bone is natures own tinfoil.

Still Invasive

[lobiusmoop]

"The technique still requires removing a small piece of skull, but unlike implanted electrodes that read neuronsâ(TM) electrical activity directly, it doesnâ(TM)t involve opening the brainâ(TM)s protective membrane"

Yea... nope. Still not great for casual use.

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[rpresser]

I don't quite agree. The risk of having a small hole drilled in your skull but not your dura mater, seems quite on par with the risk of getting large parts of your body tattooed, which lots and lots of people do without questioning it. "Casual" use, maybe not. "Frequent medical use for the disabled", absolutely!

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[Gilgaron]

It'd be more comparable to an excision or laparoscopy than tattooing, which doesn't go all the way through the skin the way this would.

I can now control my employer through surveillance

[Dirk Becher]

All I have to do is to check my private email during work hours if I want to resign!

Less-invasive

[xonen]

From the article:

The technique still requires removing a small piece of skull

Thanks, but i pass for now.

Still pretty amazing though, to measure blood flow in real-time with ultrasound.

Tried it

[DI4BL0S]

Above this line is all that i thought while using the module

It's official

[Provocateur]

Monkey brain is off my list of insults

Kernel

[quanminoan]

The new Kernel "helmets" are far better than ultrasound, basically shrinks an entire MEG room into a mobile cap.

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[Harvey Manfrenjenson]

From the Kernel website: "all experimentation [with the MEG helmet] was conducted in a magnetically-shielded room". I'm assuming they use the same kind of room you use for regular MEG, which is an expensive construction that looks like a bank vault. So it's not quite as mobile as all that.

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[quanminoan]

My understanding was they incorporated cancellation coils in the helmet since then allowing for use in any reasonable environment, but I could be wrong.

Who needs an army ...

[Anne Thwacks]

... when you can have killer robots controlled by monkeys.

And then immediately go in sale.

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

A key next step will be to use the computer predictions in real time to guide a robot hand

"The first trials will be an easy task, such as mentally commanding the robot hand to move rhythmically up and down."

No more tired hands

[jdossey]

Now the infinite monkeys won't have to actually use their hands to type out Hamlet.

Control Thought with Machines

[mi]

Opening New Way To Control Machines With Thought

Reading thoughts also allows punishing the wrong ones — with electric "zaps", for example. Starting small, but increasing in both voltage and duration for repeat offenders. For the Greater Good.

Wouldn't that improve productivity tremendously? No need for woke crowds demanding punishment for thought-crimes years later — a machine can be programmed to administer it immediately. (Using the electrodes built into keyboards — it being illegal to se

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

I don't think blood is enough to make it work.

[sabbede]

Like an fMRI, this is just measuring the change in blood flow/volume in part of the brain. That may indicate something is about to happen there, but can't say too much about what is going to happen, and can only work in one direction. even if the resolution is high enough to show changes in supply to a single cell, I don't think that will tell you what the voltage is across the membrane, or which transmitters are being dumped into the synapses.

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[rpresser]

You underestimate how well brains can learn. It's about feedback. If you can train yourself to direct a basketball to hit the basket from across the court using only your eyes and arms as control, then you can train yourself to operate a robot arm using only brain blood flow. It's not about reading minds here, despite the headline. It's about providing a control pathway for the disabled who need it.

Reading brains with ultrasound

[Applehu Akbar]

Best of all, this has already been tested on American diplomats visiting Cuba and China.

I don't believe it.

[Cryptimus]

> Ultrasound Reads Monkey Brains

    Ye Gods, the Trump family finally made a contribution to science?