TIP OVER TIP OVER TIP OVER DANGIT mind control foiled again
Hey Guys Julia here for DNews
I’ve wanted to control things with my mind since..
forever..
well mostly since I saw Matilda when I was a kid.
While I don’t have super powers, maybe technology can help me out.
Brain-computer interfaces, or BCI are, just like that sounds, devices that connect your
brain to a computer.
They can read your mind and make things move!
While it might seem like a fantasy, it’s 2016 baby and it’s real, it’s here and
they have many uses.
They are often a powerful aid to those with severe disabilities that inhibit movement,
like quadriplegics or those with cerebral palsy.
They help people communicate, walk, and even drive a car!
Seriously.
Recently, Chinese researchers introduce a prototype for a mind-controlled car!
This particular technology uses an EEG, or electroencephalogram, made up of 16 sensors
on a cap that reads electric signals from the brain.
Just by thinking, the controller can make the car move forward and backward and even
come to a stop.
A controller can also both lock and unlock the vehicle without lifting a finger.
But before you get too excited, the researchers from Nankai University don’t intend to actually
produce one of these cars, it was more a practice in seeing how useful such can tech can be,
especially for those with disabilities.
Although BCI tech was first researched in the 1970s, it’s come along way in the past
few decades.
They work by measuring the signals brain waves give off.
These kinds of brain-computer interfaces can’t read your every thought, but they can take
all the electrical buzz from your brain and translate it into a single command like “walk
forward” with alarming accuracy.
But a lot of what’s picked up is fuzzy white noise from other brain signals or electrical
signals given off from muscles moving.
An algorithm filters the the noise from the notion.
That notion has to be sustained “conscious, intentional activity”.
According to research given at the Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering
in Medicine and Biology Society, some EEGS can translate intention 98% of the time .
Now people, like paraplegic individuals can browse the web and write emails by moving
a mentally controlled mouse.
But it’s still a slow going and cumbersome process; The system has to learn the patient’s
signals too.
Both the patient and the computer are learning the process at the same time.
So it can take months of practice and training.
Because many BCI spelling systems flash different letters on a screen and you have to think
something like YES for the letter you want.
The BCI reads that change in the brain waves.
So you can imagine that it would take time just to write your name.
Some systems reportedly take a minute just to type out less than 10 characters.
As for walking, EEG controlled exoskeletons like this one, help people who’ve lost control
of their legs walk again.
But they take a whole crew of physical therapists to help wire someone into the machine.
So they aren’t just high tech toys.
But if you’re more curious about the novelty factor, this tech is already hitting the toy
market.
Like the car, toys or other tech like this only measure concentration and so can’t
control many factors at once.
Like the car can only go forwards or backwards, toys like Star Wars Science Force Trainer
only send a ball blowing up a tube.
But more complicated gadgets are on the horizon, one study published in the Journal of Neural
Engineering found that a person can control a drone through an obstacle course, just by
the power of their thoughts.
How cool is that?
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more!
So the power of the mind is pretty awesome.
But your mind isn’t the only way to control tech.
The human body is full of kinetic energy, potential energy, heat, and electricity.
Maybe we can use these resources for energy.
To find out more about how your body can be a power plant, check out this episode right
here
So I really want to know…
HAVE YOU USED ONE OF THESE MIND CONTROL GADGETS?
Did they live up to your expectations?
Let me know down in the comments below…