U of W researchers show off brain-controlled humanoid bot

We were fairly certain we'd reached the apex of human-computer interfacing when that 14-year old kid started blasting Space Invader baddies using only his mind, but we were oh so very wrong. Some University of Washington researchers have managed to jack a grad student into their humanoid robot and perform minor tasks. The big news is that this time, unlike that MRI-based Asimo control we saw earlier this year, the brain waves are being read by a mere cap with 32 electrodes on it, meaning the project uses much messier brain data to control the bot. Because of the type of brain readings they're getting, the bot is semi-autonomous, using human control for making the decisions based on video cameras, but managing the actual mechanics of the motions on its own. Right now the bot can only manage to pick up simple shapes and move them to another location, but the eventual goal is a human-controlled robot that can function in human environments, learn from its surroundings and perform meaningful tasks for its human masters.

[Juan @ Dec 15th 2006 7:25PM]

Robots will remember this day and laugh, once we're hooked up by wires and they control us with their brains.

[shmengie @ Dec 15th 2006 7:57PM]

i, for one, welcome our fleshy, human overlords and their shiny, metallic henchmen.

[Paulmichael @ Dec 15th 2006 9:06PM]

And I, for one, am sick and tired of these lame "overlord" jokes. They're really just not funny at all.

[Jonathan @ Dec 15th 2006 9:28PM]

I, for one, welcome our new unfunnilly anal overlord.

Bonus points for a new word!

[Jamie @ Dec 16th 2006 12:26AM]

I, for one, welcome our new robot brain overlords.

[strider_mt2k @ Dec 16th 2006 8:34AM]

In the original program the bots always pulled off their own heads rather than being controlled by a human brain.

Yep, like that scene from Robocop.