fMRI Lets Israeli Student Control Robot In France With His Mind 92
MrSeb writes "An Israeli student has become the first person to meld his mind and movements with a robot surrogate, or avatar. Situated inside an fMRI scanner in Israel, Tirosh Shapira has controlled a humanoid robot some 2000 kilometers (1250 miles) away, at the Béziers Technology Institute in France, using just his mind. The system must be trained so that a particular "thought" (fMRI blood flow pattern) equates to a certain command. In this case, when Shapira thinks about moving forward or backward, the robot moves forward or backward; when Shapira thinks about moving one of his hands, the robot surrogate turns in that direction. To complete the loop, the robot has a camera on its head, with the image being displayed in front of Shapira. Speaking to New Scientist, it sounds like Shapira really became one with the robot: 'It was mind-blowing. I really felt like I was there, moving around,' he says. 'At one point the connection failed. One of the researchers picked the robot up to see what the problem was and I was like, "Oi, put me down!"'"
Re:Interesting (Score:5, Insightful)
The bigger issue, it seems to be, is feedback. Sure, you can train the machine to "read" certain patterns with attempts to move the arm, and potentially create very advanced interfaces, but the interface is purely one-way: there is no way to tell the human he has "touched" something. Cameras work to some extent to provide visual feedback, but more advanced and more delicate control requires something beyond just that. We need to find a way to provide neural feedback to replicate the sense of touch, at the very least. Sight can be provided easily (without requiring a neural interface), as can hearing, and smell is largely unneeded, but for an arm, touch feedback is essential.
Re:Next Step (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:When the robot (Score:1, Insightful)
Wow you are an idiot. Have you ever been to Israel? Do you even know who the Palestinians are or where that name even comes from? I could rant on I am sure for many paragraphs uselessly, so I'll try to keep it relatively short...until you know our history, come to our country, see the reality on the ground, and educate yourself regarding the problems, please refrain from making misinformed ridiculous comments.
I think you are confused who the occupiers are. You try living somewhere where you are surrounded by people who worship death more than life, fire missiles at you daily in violation of every agreement, and who are caught daily with bombs and weapons at checkpoints. But if you would like to sit in some restaurants in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem every day after you remove the walls and checkpoints, be my guest and see what happens to you or one of your friends or family. You try living in a place where the world is against despite what they've done to your people, what promises were broken, what land was stolen (do you even realize not just historically, but according to international treaties how large Israel "should" be?).
It's sad people rely on propaganda and are compelled to constantly moan about a place they have never been. Perhaps it is some addiction to supporting the underdog, but sad when you can't even realize who is the real underdog. My country produces more technology and brain power than almost anywhere in the world, and we try to live peacefully. We had to work hard to resurrect our country that was destroyed and ravaged by war many times, only to have foreigners and squatters tell us what is what. Even my Arab neighbors who actually live in Israel realize this...
Please find something else to troll the internet about.