braincontrol
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Sega Toys, NeuroSky team up for "mind-controlled" toys
Details are still light on this one, but Sega Toys (makers of freaky robots) and the brain-reading folks at NeuroSky have announced that they've teamed up in an effort to develop what they're only describing as "mind-controlled tech toys," which they say will "take 'play' to the next level." Those unspecified toys will apparently make use of NeuroSky's ThinkGear bio-sensor technology which, according to the company, uses "dry active sensors" that eliminate the need for contact gels while also maintaining a small form factor. Given the vagaries of the announcement, however, we wouldn't expect the toys to be hitting store shelves anytime soon, but you can be sure that there'll be plenty of attempts to "repurpose" them whenever they do.[Via Gadget Lab]
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.
Hitachi creates brain-controlled model railroad
Compared to other advances in the world brain-controlled interfaces, Hitachi's latest development may seem a tad unimpressive, basically amounting to a thought-controlled switch. But, connect that switch to a model train set and you've suddenly got something that's a heckuva lot more impressive -- at least on first glance. To get that train rolling, Hitachi uses optical topography to map changes in blood flow in areas of the brain associated with mental activity, translating those changes into voltage signals to flip the switch on and off. Of course, Hitachi eventually sees the tech allowing for a much greater degree of control, with one of the goals being to help paralyzed patients become more independent. They also seem to think they're on the fast track towards commercializing the technology, saying it could be available as soon as five years from now.[Via Pink Tentacle]
