Japan's Cyborg Research Enters the Skull

RemyBR writes "Researchers at Osaka University are stepping up efforts to develop robotic body parts controlled by thought, by placing electrode sheets directly on the surface of the brain. The research marks Japan's first foray into invasive (i.e. requiring open-skull surgery) brain-machine interface research on human test subjects. The aim of the research is to develop real-time mind-controlled robotic limbs for the disabled. 'To date, the researchers have worked with four test subjects to record brain wave activity generated as they move their arms, elbows and fingers. Working with Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR), the researchers have developed a method for analyzing the brain waves to determine the subject's intended activity to an accuracy of greater than 80%.'"

Like everything in Japan

I give it about 2 months until they come up with a gameshow using the new technology.

Danger is my middle name

Open brain surgery and mind controlled robot, dangerous? pff! That doesn't sound dangerous at all!

Well now we get to find out the answer...

Which provides the greater threat to civilization: Dr. Octupus (insidious human intelligence in control of super, robotically enhanced strength) or Skynet (insidious artificial intelligence in control of super, robotically enhanced strength)?

Just make sure to say no if one these subjects starts asking for more tritium!

So around 20% of the time

If you think you would definitely slap that ass, your limb will actually do it. Woops.

Actually, it's a good point.

The article linked to doesn't go into whether/how much they've looked at thoughts about movement with no movement intended. Recent research has shown that when you're thinking about doing an activity, the same motor neurons light up as when you actually do

Re:Actually, it's a good point.

That was my first thought:
tests subjects first dream where the wrestle a bear, upon waking discovers his robotic arms have torn his pillows to shreds!

And this is why our brain produces chemicals to actually inhibit our body's muscles during sleep.

Re:Actually, it's a good point.

Yeah, but how would you turn it back on again? Does it come with a built in alarm that wakes up and starts beating the crap out of you until you get up? I could do with one of those..

Re:Actually, it's a good point.

As long as your 'alarm' didn't go off by mistake while you were at work..

Sweet!

Does that mean I can finally get a robotic prehensile tail installed? Or will they only work on installing "replacement" parts that are "supposed" to be there?

I think this has great potential and here is why.

I think the most interesting thing about research like this is, not only the technology behind the interface, but the fact that the brain it self will adapt to use the new interface.

The basic concept of the brain is it's ability to create pathways to 'memorize' an action. This is why a right handed person can learn to write with the left hand. In the same way the brain can learn how to manipulate the interface and thus create new pathways to make it an innate action

I for one

am really excited about such research, mostly because it brings us another step closer to the day when we can even enhance our brains (and physical capabilities) using machines.

It makes me wonder if physically and mentally challenged people are going to be the most important players in our meta-evolution into a man-machine hybrid. After all people would naturally freak out at first if someone suggested using this kind of technology on healthy humans to "enhance" them, because the idea is alien and it is natural to be scared of the unknown. But once this kind of technology is mainstream and is used routinely to bring at par people who would otherwise be seriously challenged, then much of the fear would be quelled. The next obvious step would be to lower the bar of what constitutes "challenged".

Too bad I might be dead before they figure out how to interface a "google chip" of sorts and all the knowledge known to mankind is just a thought away.

Re:I for one

I already have a bionic wife. She's hearing-impaired, and has a cochlear implant. Currently the speech processor is still external, but you could imagine an internal one run off of the body's energy.

Occasionally I envy her ability to turn it off. But I really want bionic eyes with zoom, split-screen, and picture-taking ability.

Obligatory Matrix Quote

"This will feel... a little weird."

OUT OF DATE

Wow, this is so out of date it's not even funny.

Being a patient of corrective surgery for epilepsy twice, I decided to actually RTFA.

The article is about Japan placing electrodes directly onto the brain to pick up more accurate signals. This actually has no direct link to having computer controlled body parts; as the FTA says they have been using electrodes placed directly on the brain to pick up activity when one moves his or her arm.

Why is this old news? during my last round of epilepsy correction surgery, (in 2001) I went through surgery so they could place an electrode plate inside my skull in order to pick up right temporal and frontal lobe activity with the greatest accuracy. I can tell you it gave me the worst headache ever for the week or so they monitored me for seizure activity, but they immediately removed it once they decided the correct tissue to remove. Thankfully since then, it showed that the second time, not third, was the charm, for i'm off of seizure drugs without having seizure activity. And intelligence-wise, well, I still can write in assembly, and I read slashdot 3times a day. (that doesn't exactly show i'm intelligent though, not all slashdotters use their brains :-P)

As you can see, this article is BS. Wake me up when they are using electrodes to directly interface with and manage brain activity, none of this activity reading bullshit. Yes, i was in a bad mood previous to reading TFA. heh.

EndOfRant

Re:OUT OF DATE

Well, it was only 2, I apologize if the strange reference to "third time is a charm" was a little confusing.

The first time was when I was 11, and the surgeon ended up not removing enough (this was at Children's Hospital of Detroit), because I started having seizures 5 years later. So at 17, I went to the Cleveland Clinic and I had the rest of the area taken out, along with a miniscule amount of the right frontal lobe taken out. The only permanent effect I still have is that I have no "right" peripheral vision in both of my eyes. Which isn't really that severe. Any other problems I had, like fear recognition (linked to the amygdala, which was partially removed), hunger, and such were short term, and were expected.

If you are curious about how this stuff works, its an interesting read. http://professionals.epilepsy.com/page/surgery_cortical.html [epilepsy.com]

The second surgery was also a reason why I decided to give up on religion, but that is a whole other story by itself. Let's just say that as an 11 year old child, I put my faith in a God to stop fear and pain. As a 17 year old teenager, I gave up on that God, and put the faith in myself, and it worked. Yeah, it might sound a little simplistic, and maybe surgeons knew more than before, but that kind of logic is the same kind that religions use to function, and that exact logic was what showed me that gods don't exist.

Japanese open-skull implants ...

... and you thought the Sony rootkit was evil when it was on music CDs.

Re:Surely there's an easier way...?

Yes but that way they won't be able to do any research about mind control techniques.

Re:

It might be easier, but it won't give near as fine-grained control as this method would provide.

Re:

And this method has other uses. Such as giving people limbs they never had.
Military grant for a soldier with a 3rd arm for a minigun anyone? Anyone at all?

Re:Surely there's an easier way...?

Make it a mega-gun and you have a deal... I have no use for another mini-gun.

Re:Surely there's an easier way...?

"This is my rifle, and this is my gun. One is for fighting, the other's for...oh wait."

Re:Surely there's an easier way...?

how exactly would that help people whose nerve connections between their limbs and their brain have been severed? that is a lot of the reason why cybernetics/prosthetics are being researched after all.

Re:Surely there's an easier way...?

"Wouldn't it be easier to place the electrodes on the peripheral nerves that would normally have controlled the missing limb? Surely, that would be preferable to opening the skull..."

I was a little more focused on the "greater than 80% accuracy bit" especially with the potential strength enhancements...

Nothing like playing Japanese roulette when you shake the leftover urine from your plumbing.

" OH GOD, NOT AGAIN!!"

unless of course you could get a fully functional replacement for it.

"hey baby, you up for a little interactive machine love?"

On the other hand, it would probably run linux.

On the upside...

On the other hand, it would probably run linux.

On the upside, there's the vastly improved uptime...

Re:surprised

Who said we didn't think about it? It's just a bit of a cliche now, even if it is awesome :P This is nowhere near Ghost in the Shell level diving and prosthetic control though, we're still in baby steps. It shouldn't really be that difficult to do because our sensory and motor sections of the brain are basically at the very surface on the top left and top right of the brains as far as I remember from my psychology classes.. just needs people gutsy enough to undergo more procedures like this and some appropriately knowledgeable bio-scientists and robotics geeks to develop something that is going to provide a high enough level of accuracy in mapping everything out. And hopefully being reliable enough not to make you lose all control of your body, crap yourself, and feel like you're getting repeatedly stabbed in the eyes by trees.