Jaguar
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|  #1 Posted on 16.10.03 1510.37
Reposted on: 16.10.10 1510.51 | And to think, I live only a few miles away from cybernetically enhanced monkies....
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/10/13/monkey.brains.reut/index.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Dr. Miguel Nicolelis knew he had nailed it when the monkey stopped using her arm to play the computer game.
An implanted device had allowed the monkey to control the game using only her thoughts, Nicolelis and colleagues report in the Public Library of Science Biology journal on Monday.
And changes in the way the monkey's brain cells worked suggested the brain was physically adjusting to the device, they reported in the new online science journal.
Nicolelis hopes the device will eventually allow paralyzed patients to regain some ability to use their upper bodies -- virtually, if not physically.
"The monkey suddenly realized that she didn't need to move her arm at all," Nicolelis said in a statement.
"Her arm muscles went completely quiet, she kept the arm at her side and she controlled the robot arm using only her brain and visual feedback."
Three years ago, Nicolelis and colleagues at Duke University in North Carolina reported that they had allowed a monkey to move a robotic arm using only her thoughts and implanted electrodes. But the monkey continued to move her arm.
In the latest experiment, they said two monkeys figured out what was happening and played a computer game using thoughts alone.
Recognizing brain patterns
"It's very different because these animals now receive feedback information," Nicolelis added in a telephone interview.
"They could learn to correct their errors and achieve a very high level of proficiency, using brain activity alone to reproduce reaching and grabbing hand movements."
Nicolelis and colleagues first implanted microelectrodes -- each smaller than the diameter of a human hair -- into the brains of two female rhesus macaque monkeys named Aurora and Ivy.
One got 96 electrodes in her frontal and parietal lobes -- known to be the source of commands for muscular movement. The second monkey got 320 implants.
The electrodes transmit faint signals to a computer system the researchers have developed to recognize patterns of signals that represent particular movements by an animal's arm. These signals are translated and in turn control a robotic arm.
At first the animals were taught to use a joystick to control the cursor of a video game -- which Nicolelis said they enjoyed playing. The researchers recorded and analyzed the electrical activity of the neurons near the implanted electrodes.
Learning to control cursor
As the game became more complex, the monkeys learned how to control the cursor.
The group has started working with a small group of human patients, but Nicolelis said he could not give any details yet.
Potential users include 200,000 people in the United States alone who have partial or nearly total permanent paralysis. An estimated 11,000 people a year suffer severe spinal cord injuries, for instance, and sufferers of Parkinson's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also called ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease, may also become paralyzed.
"We hope the brain will learn to adapt to the devices and incorporate them as if they were the patient's own limbs," Nicolelis said.
Could help humans
His team is working to miniaturize the device so it can be useful to a human patient outside a laboratory setting.
"There is certainly a great deal of science and engineering to be done to develop this technology and to create systems that can be used safely in humans," he added.
"However, the results so far lead us to believe that these brain-machine interfaces hold enormous promise for restoring function to paralyzed people."
*********
Rather intersting, eh?
-Jag
(edited by Jaguar on 16.10.03 1612) | Promote this thread! |             | Nate The Snake
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| #2 Posted on 16.10.03 1948.26
Reposted on: 16.10.10 1948.26 | Commies on the moon, cyber-monkeys controlling computers with THEIR VERY MINDS...
It can only mean the future!
This is soooo great. I remember seeing a show some time back where they were teaching a guy to do the same thing with some kind of headband rig. The possibilities are pretty thrilling, to say the least. | OlFuzzyBastard
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| #3 Posted on 16.10.03 2015.43
Reposted on: 16.10.10 2019.56 | Originally posted by Nate The Snake
Commies on the moon, cyber-monkeys controlling computers with THEIR VERY MINDS...
It can only mean the future!
If that's the case, where in the hell is my flying car?! It's almost 2004, dammit! I was promised a flying car by now! | Doc_whiskey
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| #4 Posted on 16.10.03 2021.13
Reposted on: 16.10.10 2021.22 | Originally posted by OlFuzzyBastard
Originally posted by Nate The Snake
Commies on the moon, cyber-monkeys controlling computers with THEIR VERY MINDS...
It can only mean the future!
If that's the case, where in the hell is my flying car?! It's almost 2004, dammit! I was promised a flying car by now!
That has got to be so depressing for old people. I mean they watched all these movies in the 50's talking about the year 2000, everything would be cyborgs, cars would be flying, we'd be on the mmon and mars. But instead nothing much has changed since they were growing up. Oh sure we have a few more modern conveniences that make life easier, but nothing truly cool like they were promised in movies. | OlFuzzyBastard
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| #5 Posted on 16.10.03 2100.57
Reposted on: 16.10.10 2101.13 | Originally posted by Doc_whiskey
Originally posted by OlFuzzyBastard
Originally posted by Nate The Snake
Commies on the moon, cyber-monkeys controlling computers with THEIR VERY MINDS...
It can only mean the future!
If that's the case, where in the hell is my flying car?! It's almost 2004, dammit! I was promised a flying car by now!
That has got to be so depressing for old people. I mean they watched all these movies in the 50's talking about the year 2000, everything would be cyborgs, cars would be flying, we'd be on the mmon and mars. But instead nothing much has changed since they were growing up. Oh sure we have a few more modern conveniences that make life easier, but nothing truly cool like they were promised in movies.
I don't know. I think there's a lot of incredible developments we take for granted. The Internet we're using right now would have seemed like science fiction even twenty years ago. Thank you, Al Gore! | fuelinjected
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|  #6 Posted on 16.10.03 2138.44
Reposted on: 16.10.10 2139.10 | The people that come up with this stuff are truly mad scientists. I can understand how it would work and how someone would think of the concept but actually doing it makes my brain hurt.
I'm eagerly waiting for a human brain in a cyborg robotic body. You know somebody's working on that shit. | Jaguar
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| #7 Posted on 16.10.03 2256.07
Reposted on: 16.10.10 2256.59 | Well if this works, you know who's going to grab the ball and run with it, right? If I can control a robotic arm with my mind, I can certainly make that robotic arm pull the trigger of an M16.
Kind of cool, kind of scary there.
-Jag | Nate The Snake
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| #8 Posted on 17.10.03 0520.56
Reposted on: 17.10.10 0521.00 | Originally posted by OlFuzzyBastard
Originally posted by Nate The Snake
Commies on the moon, cyber-monkeys controlling computers with THEIR VERY MINDS...
It can only mean the future!
If that's the case, where in the hell is my flying car?! It's almost 2004, dammit! I was promised a flying car by now!
Oh, we'll have flying cars all right.
Flying cars controlled by commie cyber-monkeys from SPACE.
And Jag makes an good point. If this tech makes any kind of serious progress in the next few years it'll be because the military takes interest in it. That's where the money is, after all. And the ramifications of it being adopted... essentially risk-free combat. Yes, it'll save lives (at least, lives on the side that has the tech, which is all that matters from a military standpoint) but what'll it do to the way combat itself is viewed? Will it make us that much more willing to charge in to any conflict with our new, disposable troops? Interesting stuff. | Grimis
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| #9 Posted on 17.10.03 0626.39
Reposted on: 17.10.10 0628.18 | Originally posted by Jaguar
Well if this works, you know who's going to grab the ball and run with it, right? If I can control a robotic arm with my mind, I can certainly make that robotic arm pull the trigger of an M16.
I see the headline; "Kennedy, Schumer introduce Robot Control legislation" | DrDirt
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| #10 Posted on 17.10.03 0736.08
Reposted on: 17.10.10 0736.39 | Originally posted by Jaguar
Well if this works, you know who's going to grab the ball and run with it, right? If I can control a robotic arm with my mind, I can certainly make that robotic arm pull the trigger of an M16.
Kind of cool, kind of scary there.
-Jag
And war becomes more and more an abstraction and therfore easier to fight in terms of our human cost. More like a video game and less like a last resort. Don't get me wrong. Anything that helps protect our troops and minimizes the risks to their safety is great. Its the people in Washington that scare me as this sort of technological advance happens. It becomes easier to resort to violence than slog through problems diplomatically. | vsp
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| #11 Posted on 17.10.03 0747.56
Reposted on: 17.10.10 0751.35 | Screw all of that.
This could lead to the ULTIMATE wireless game controller. Hopefully, they'll have the bugs out by the time the PS3 comes out.
It's not as if it hasn't been tried before.
| The Thrill
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| #12 Posted on 17.10.03 0806.50
Reposted on: 17.10.10 0809.12 | Originally posted by OlFuzzyBastard
Where in the hell is my flying car?! It's almost 2004, dammit! I was promised a flying car by now!
Those resources are currently being allocated to the mayor of Boston, to build the spaceship he promised his constituency if the BoSox beat the A's. | ThreepMe
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| #13 Posted on 17.10.03 1058.53
Reposted on: 17.10.10 1059.01 | Now the damn dirty Apes have robots!
If they ever figure out fire, I'm moving to Mars.
(edited by ThreepMe on 17.10.03 0859) | | ALL ORIGINAL POSTS IN THIS THREAD ARE NOW AVAILABLE |
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