ACM TechNews
For Future of Mind Control, Robot-Monkey Trials Are Just a Start
Popular Mechanics (07/07/08) Sofge, Erik
Thought-controlled prosthetics is the goal of research into brain-computer
interfaces at Duke University and elsewhere, where neuroscientists have
engineered amazing breakthroughs, including demonstrations in which monkeys
outfitted with electrode implants were able to control machines using brain
signals. Such technology relies heavily on the ability to analyze neural
activity and translate it into physical action, and it is the belief of
Duke University Medical Center neuroscience professor Miguel Nicolelis that
a physical neural connection will allow the rapid enablement of brain
plasticity with greater precision than what can be facilitated with current
prosthetic control systems. "When you link the brain to a device, it could
allow scaling in force and time--things that, today, your body can't do,"
he reasons. Nicolelis says rehabilitation is the technology's primary
benefit for the foreseeable future, but even further out is the possibility
of a two-way brain-computer interface with a remote device, which has the
potential to greatly expand human perception and environmental interaction.
An experiment conducted at Nicolelis' lab in North Carolina involving a
monkey that drove the walking movements of a 200-pound robot in Kyoto,
Japan, indicated that the brain signal traveled from the monkey to the
robot faster than from the monkey's brain to its own muscles, leading to
the possibility that prosthetic machines could be controlled faster than
the speed of thought. It will be a major challenge for mind-machine
interface technology to cross the gulf separating the primate from the
human mind, which is similar but vastly more sophisticated. However, the
biggest obstacle may be human beings' natural reluctance to have electrodes
permanently implanted in their skulls.
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