Brain-computer Interfaces By Levi Ostrom A Mind’s Control: Brain-computer Interfaces By Levi Ostrom

The Gap 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.

<> How it Works 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.

Voice Prosthesis 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.

Hands Off Control 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.

Some Drawbacks 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.

Offshoots 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)

Discussion 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

Is it safe?