Control The TV With Your Mind

(AP)  Forget the clicker: A new technology in Japan could let you control electronic devices without lifting a finger simply by reading brain activity.

The "brain-machine interface" developed by Hitachi Inc. analyzes slight changes in the brain's blood flow and translates brain motion into electric signals.

A cap connects by optical fibers to a mapping device, which links, in turn, to a toy train set via a control computer and motor during one recent demonstration at Hitachi's Advanced Research Laboratory in Hatoyama, just outside Tokyo.

"Take a deep breath and relax," said Kei Utsugi, a researcher, while demonstrating the device Wednesday.

At his prompting, a reporter did simple calculations in their head, and the train sprang forward; apparently indicating activity in the brain's frontal cortex, which handles problem solving.

Activating that region of the brain — by doing sums or singing a song — is what makes the train run, according to Utsugi. When one stops the calculations, the train stops, too.

Underlying Hitachi's brain-machine interface is a technology called optical topography, which sends a small amount of infrared light through the brain's surface to map out changes in blood flow.

Although brain-machine interface technology has traditionally focused on medical uses, makers like Hitachi and Japanese automaker Honda Motor Co. have been racing to refine the technology for commercial application.

Hitachi's scientists are set to develop a brain TV remote controller letting users turn a TV on and off or switch channels by only thinking.

Honda, whose interface monitors the brain with an MRI machine like those used in hospitals, is keen to apply the interface to intelligent, next-generation automobiles.

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[toolmangler-2009]

The amazing thing is we will be watching it happen and it will still overtake us. Just like a snake 'hypnotizes' it prey.

[toolmangler-2009]

Interesting but why does it make me want to say "Resistance if Futile, you shall be assemilated"???

Posted by JedStarkiler at 05:15 PM : Jun 22, 2007


Orwell knew what he was talking about, you might call this an embryonic "Big Brother"

[victoriarum]

Propaganda, with a hidden agenda.

Pray for Peace, God Bless Each of You.

[texvet528]

This is only a first use, Though really it's already being used with bulkier equipment for medical uses(for the paralyzed etc.).

The more mainstream it becomes the more the technology can/will be applied to other areas.

[erasmus6]

It's no wonder more and more people are getting fat. We no longer have to pick up our fat a-s-ses off the couch to change the channel cause we have the remote control. So now they are saying we won't even have to lift a finger! I think their time would be better spent dealing with other things that are a little more important.

[michellem99-2009]

No thank you to that. It looks dumb and really who dreams up this,boys and girls with too much time on their hands. It can't really work for most people plus only the rich would wear it. Nope. I only wear hats. No body would fall for that.

[hypnotoad72]

Might be useful for paraplegics and others with immobile body parts. Imagine that, an electronic analogue for cialis, but I digress...

[jedstarkiler]

Interesting but why does it make me want to say "Resistance if Futile, you shall be assemilated"???

[prolegomena]

Your V-chip.

What worries me, is the long term ramifications of pumping this energy directly into the brain. One application might not be an issue, but thinking 20 years down the road, one would have to wonder what dozens of these applications might do to a person's brain, over a period of years.

New call for the tin-foil hats...

if I think about porn what will I get to see?