Posted by admin in If Intel has its way, keyboards and mice will soon become obsolete. By 2020, you may only need your brain to operate your computer.
To make the technology work, Intel researchers are working on decoding human brain activity. Using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRI) scans, they have found that people usually show the same brain patterns for similar thoughts. For example, if two persons imagine a tiger or just hear the word tiger, their brains are found to show similar activity.
Intel researcher Dean Pomerleau and his team are now well on their way to building a headset with in-built brain sensing technology that can operate a computer. In the final phase, they hope to develop a small, less cumbersome sensor that could be implanted inside the brain.
Researchers are optimistic that people won’t consider the implant as an invasion of their privacy. Consumers would rather welcome the freedom of not having to use those cumbersome add-ons to manipulate their computers, they believe.
Some other researchers have explored this territory before. A couple of years ago, American and Japanese researchers used a monkey’s brain to control a humanoid robot. They believe their research could help a paralyzed person walk again. Automobile giant Toyota recently came up with a wheelchair controlled with brainwaves.
The successful creation of such a seamless brain interface is likely to have wider implications. If science can finally take us where brain waves are translated into specific actions, it might end up creating a virtual world bustling with telekinetic activities of sort.
What a world that would be!
Related posts: