The thought-controlled robotic arm

We were aware of otherwise primitive systems that had been interfaced with the human nervous system, but a freaking thought-controlled robot arm? Apparently researchers at the U of Pittsburgh were able to create a full shoulder-elbow-gripper type arm that can be jacked into a system of neural probes—the machine filters out all but the most important arm-movement neural signaling, and uses that to approximate mechanical motion with what they call a "population vector." So basically a monkey with its limbs restrained was able to pick up, hold food, and feed itself when its brain started firing arm movement commands. This is some seriously unbelievable freaky awesome advanced stuff, man.

[Matt @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM]

When the monkey can fling poo and punch his clown with the robot arm, it will truly become useful technology.

[Chris @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM]

Can we hook these up to those combat robots in Iraq, via a wireless network connection?

Wow. That would be fun, thought controlled combat robots on the other side of the globe. I'm a little scared.

[Brucee10 @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM]

I'm thinking of a Rock'em Sock'em Robot rumble in the barracks after the battle of thought-bots.

[elaine hyder @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM]

The work was conducted at the University of Pittsburgh, not Pittsburgh University. If you want to get more info and see it in action go here: http://motorlab.neurobio.pitt.edu/.

[ishtar @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM]

Or a virtual reality mod for halflife2!!! :D

[Skippy @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM]

So, can they make it nuclear powered and create the Six Million Dollar chimp?

[Gerard Rejskind @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM]

This technology is so 20th Century! Am I the only one who remembers Dr. Strangelove?

[hobgoblin @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM]

welcome to a cyberpunk world. still, was the monkey able to register when he grasped an object? sure its nice that it moves based on brain signals alone (less clumbsy then muscle signals and similar) but unless one can feel the pressure of the item you have in your hand then its only halfway there...

ie, brain output is simple, brain input is damn hard...

[aquadhere @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM]

This is not new. An artist called stelarc has had a third robotic "hand" he has been able to control with the power of thought. There was a picture of him writing the word "evolution" with all three hands - that was soooo cool.

check it out:
http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/

[Ty, the technology guy @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM]

A different group in Pittsburgh placed probes in the brain of a monkey, then trained the monkey to use a joystick to control the motion of a 2D circular shape on the screen in front of it. The monkey would have to move the shape over another circle placed on the screen, then squeeze the joystick to make its circle get bigger to match the one that was already there. It would then have to hold the joystick with the correct amount of pressure for three seconds to make the circles match in order to get rewarded with some apple juice. What the monkey didn't know is that each time it moved the joystick, it was moving a robotic arm in a different room. It's brain signals were also being mapped by the researchers, so they could determine what each move looked like on the computer. After a while of doing this, the researchers took the joystick away and sat the monkey in front of the screen. By this time, they had been able to map what signals the monkey's brain was putting out each time it moved the joystick in a certain way. So now, they wanted to see if the monkey could make the circle move just by thinking it to do so. After sitting there for a little while, the circle began to move over to the other one on the screen, then grew in size and was held for three seconds to match the other circle. The robotic arm in a different room was also moving because of the monkey's thoughts controlling it to do so. The researchers are hoping to find better ways of mapping the brain signals, so that this can be used in humans. Currently, they have to run hundreds of wires right into the monkey's brain and there need to be quite a few computers processing the signals. They are hoping to make an external helmet or something similar in the future that would make it much more feasible. It could mean that people who have lost limbs would have prosthetics put in that were completely controlled by their thoughts. Pretty crazy. The defense agency research program found out about this too and they couldn't be happier. They are hoping that one day we can have a soldier that controls a battle field of robots from 2000 miles away just by "thinking" them to do this and that from the safety of an enclosed room behind a computer screen.