Matrix is at hand: monkey uses thought to control robot

[theotherguy]

Researchers report that monkeys fed themselves using robotic arms controlled mentally?no joystick required. The findings, reported today in Nature, suggest that patients with neuromuscular disorders, spinal cord injuries or lost limbs may one day be able to use their own brain power to operate prosthetics to carry out routine tasks.

"The animals used the device in a very natural way, making smooth, coordinated movements that look pretty natural," says Schwartz. "They were reaching for small pieces of food in a very precise way."

In fact, the monkeys were successful at grabbing and eating the food nearly 61 percent of the time, he says. Schwartz says that he had hoped they would have a better success rate, but noted that the results compared favorably to similar studies where both monkeys and humans move objects in virtual environments.

Kalaska says that although the new work is encouraging, there are hurdles to overcome before humans can use so-called neuroprosthetic limbs. A major challenge is to design more durable electrodes because the current crop degrade within weeks of implantation. Another limitation: current prosthetics cannot control the force with which they grip things, which means that a glass, for instance, might be shattered when handled. Schwartz says the team now plans to research ways to build more accurate prosthetic, with a wrist joint and a more humanlike hand.

This experiment is rather old news by now, but this is the first time that they have been able to get the monkey to perform a useful task using only its brain, an electrode, and a robot arm. Researchers spent years decoding the neural information in the motor cortex, and then slowly trained the monkey to use the robotic arm using only its thoughts. Now, it is able to control and use the robotic prosthetic to eat 60 percent of the time.

Applications for humans? Imagine prosthetic arms that takes input directly from the brain, and perhaps even sends tactile data back to the brain. Imagine being able to control a robotic worker from miles away simply by thinking about it. Imagine plugging yourself into a virtual world and controlling the actions of a character merely by thought alone.

Of course, the procedure involves invasively inserting electrodes, and using bulky electronic equipment and computers, but the technology is not as far away as we once thought.


Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOkpn0BN2HE

Source:http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=monkeys-see-monkey-do-wit

 

[JFry]

Bring on the virtual reality already.

 

[MJ12]

Humans are going to be the Combine race.

 

[Emporius]

Did the robot begin to masturbate furiously?

 

[jondy]

Furious masturbation is one of many potential benefits brought to us by our monkey overlords.

 

[Raziaar]

We have devices hooked up to rats that let us control how the rat moves... like remote controlled.

I saw it on modern marvels, and it was very cool. They get rewarded for doing the requested task by getting an injection directly into the feel good part of their body that gives them pleasure.

 

[Vegeta897]

We have devices hooked up to rats that let us control how the rat moves... like remote controlled.

I saw it on modern marvels, and it was very cool. They get rewarded for doing the requested task by getting an injection directly into the feel good part of their body that gives them pleasure.

Except that's simple conditional reflexes stuff... This shit is actually hooked up to his brain!

 

[Raziaar]

Except that's simple conditional reflexes stuff... This shit is actually hooked up to his brain!

The stuff with the rats IS hooked up to their brain.

Anyways. One page I found is here.

http://www.rense.com/general24/remote.htm

 

[Vegeta897]

The stuff with the rats IS hooked up to their brain.

When you were talking about rewarding them it sounded like a conditional learning experiment. Rat is given a signal. If he does the action that is supposed to be corresponded to it, he is rewarded, and thus more likely to do it again next time given the signal.