Transcript News Presentation

Brain-computer Interfaces
By Levi Ostrom
 Until
this technical age, mechanical limbs
could, and have only been dreamt of.
 In recent years, the cognitive psychology of
the human brain has been greatly advanced
upon with the help of modern computers.
 New studies and technologies are making it
possible for human control of robotic
prosthesis…and perhaps vice versa.
 The creation of more efficient forms of
energy and structural components have also
made these developments possible.
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The brain is a supercomputer (as
you know) and has approximately
100 billion neurons.
The neurons are linked to one
another and begin to “fire” once
your brain has thought of a
movement it wishes to make.
The more neurons firing, the more
complex or precise the movement
becomes.
The microchips used with these
prosthetic limbs only monitor 100
neurons total.
The chip picks up the electrical
impulses which are then interpreted
by a computer as the actions a
person wants to perform…it does all
this with chilling accuracy. Imagine
if they monitored more impulses.
 The
signal sent from the brain is so sensitive
that no surgical implants are needed.
 The device is simply placed externally on
the vocal chords where nerve endings emit
the signals associated with speech.
 With these electrical impulses, none of your
actual voice capability is necessary
whatsoever.
 The only setback is that you obviously have
to use pre programmed words and phrases
to regurgitate speech from the computer.
 Another
cool concept of “speech”
recognition in this way is the ability to
control motorized vessels such as a car or
wheelchair without actually using “speech.”
 You can give speech commands such as
“’forward’, ‘right’, and ‘left’” through the
nerves in your neck without having to
actually make a sound.
 Best of all, this technology does not speak
your thoughts, only those which you wish to
communicate.
Right now there are issues
with sensory information
such as: hot, cold, smooth,
and wet.
 Technology to keep
prosthetic limbs from
natural wear and tear is
lagging. (Obviously tissue
is nice enough to
regenerate for us)
 Because so few neurons are
currently being monitored,
motion is not as quick and
accurate as desired.
 Limited voice control and
vocabulary.
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 Thought
Prediction
(what someone will
think to do next)
 Plan Prediction (what
someone has already
planned out, i.e.
terrorism prevention)
 Memory Reading
 Full-fledged Mind
Control (known or
unknown the subject)
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My husband an I became grandparents for the first time on Dec.
6th,2007. Our granddaughter was born without both forearms. Quite a
shock! She will be going to Huston for prosthetics at 3 months. This article
seemed to add so much more hope for her future. I hope and pray you've
included babies in your study. I worry every night about her future…
One of the best and most thorough and insightful articles on this field
I've seen. Here's another fun projection: optical fibres already can provide
full-coverage realtime feedback from the skin of an aircraft. How about
plugging that, and the controls, into a biofeedback/neural linkage setup?
The pilot would "feel" he was the plane, and fly it like a new body.
Hmm, cybernetic monkey-borgs. Count me in as one of those who
need it the most. After I get my first billion, I'm going to use the money to
implant electrodes into my head so I can communicate with my army of
monkey-brained battleborgs and achieve my goal of world domination, or
at least, have a really cool way of fetching beer from the fridge.
What really scares me is the idiots who cant even use a toaster
controlling machines with their minds