Upgrade To A Brain Computer
May 13, 2013
The New York Times explores “Brain computers Inch Closer To Mainstream.” Engineers are already tweaking the Google Glass so that simple movements control it, but eventually thoughts will power it. Thoughts could even complete small home tasks or inform robot assistants of needs. Samsung’s Emerging Technology Lab is working on tablets that can be controlled by the brain, but it is less than a fashion statement with a ski hat and attached electrodes. People with paralysis and other disabilities can benefit the most as robotic arms and other machines will be able to be controlled with a simple thought.
There are already some products on the market, but eventually these will look like relics from an ancient society:
“’The current brain technologies are like trying to listen to a conversation in a football stadium from a blimp,’ said John Donoghue, a neuroscientist and director of the Brown Institute for Brain Science. ‘To really be able to understand what is going on with the brain today you need to surgically implant an array of sensors into the brain.’ In other words, to gain access to the brain, for now you still need a chip in your head.”
Projects are already underway to make a computer chip for the head, but even that could get old. The Obama Administration is funding the Brain Activity Map that will enhance the human’s knowledge of its own mind deeper than anything ever done. The hope is that brain computer interfaces will be viable. These ideas are still rooted in the world of science-fiction, but so were smartphones in 1970s. Time changes and advances technology.
Whitney Grace, May 13, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
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