Monkey's Thoughts Make Robot Walk

geekbits writes "For all those who have at one time or another been too lazy to get up off the couch and go to the fridge and get a beer, heat up some pizza, or change the channel when the remote is missing, we may be one step closer to being able to keep our tushes parked just a little while longer. There may also be some slightly more noble implications here. According to an article in The New York Times, in an experiment at Duke University, a 12-pound, 32-inch monkey made a 200-pound, 5-foot humanoid robot walk on a treadmill using only her brain activity. She was in North Carolina, and the robot was in Japan."

The control was great...

[FalconZero]

...but the feedback was lousy.

Monkey : Move Foot Forward
600ms later...
Robot : OK....Oh no, I'm falling over, quick move the other foot
600ms later...
Monkey : Move Other Foot Forward
600ms later...
Robot : I can't do that dave, I've fallen over

Although I assume in actuallity they left most of the balance control to the robot end of things; either that or the Monkey was psychic.
(Or more likely they've got a nice low-latency academic link)

Reminds me of the usual...

[JazzyMusicMan]

In Soviet Russia, monkey control you!

yet another...

[youthoftoday]

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/01/14/science/0115-sci-ROBOTa_large.jpg [nytimes.com]

Tell me that graphic didn't come from The Onion.

Re:monkey business

[Macrosoft0]

So, what is the monkey really doing? I doubt if he is even thinking "left, right, left, right" because even that would be hard to coordinate with so much lag.

actually, he was most likely thinking "up up down down left right left right B A select start"

In the year 5555

[xirtap]

Your arms are hanging limp at your sides, your legs got nothing to do. Some machine, doing that for you.

Re:monkey business

[TimeTraveler1884]

why is the robot in north Carolina and the monkey in Japan?

First of all, the robot was in Japan and the monkey in North Carolina. Because as everyone knows, Japan is the only country with an abundant supply of giant robots [wikipedia.org].

Don't put your robot under control of a monkey!

[Oktober Sunset]

I want my robot to do my house work and fetch me beer and food, not hang from the light fitting and throw faeces at me.

Re:It would be interesting to know how they mapped

[kcbanner]

Ah, a mind-diff. Thanks for the info :)

Re:It would be interesting to know how they mapped

[Anonymous Coward]

So you mean they need to get a woman to do this then? Can you just see a man doing it?

Step 1: Take reading "thinking of nothing" (in reality thinking of banging female researcher)
Step 2: Take reading "thinking of walking" (thinking of banging female researcher on treadmill)
Step 3: Lose funding when you can't explain why the robot keeps doing, ahem - what it is doing

Yes, but...

[HtR]

Sounds like a good concept, but I don't understand how to get a monkey on the other side of the world to think about getting me my beer and pizza?

Robot Monkey...

[Landshark17]

*Yawn* Robot Monkey overlords... something about welcoming... you know the drill. I don't feel like writing it all out.

Re:monkey business

[unbug]

One, why is the robot in north Carolina and the monkey in Japan?

Ah, a new joke. I'll have a go. They prefer intelligent design in Carolina and evolution in Japan?