Are You Ready for a Drone Controlled Only By Human Thought?

A helmet studded with electroencephalographic sensors picks up electrical activity in the brain for natural sorts of motive thoughts -- move right hand, move left hand, move arms, and so on.

The miniature helicopter, a very basic hobbyists' four-rotor toy, follows those mental commands.

In theory.

Even though this sounds like a military project the test was conducted for medical reasons.

Previously, researchers showed that subjects could control a virtual helicopter with their thoughts. The latest demo--using a real, live helicopter--is just another step toward more practical applications, with the ultimate goal being to help people with disabilities and neurdegenerative dieseases regain mobility, says researcher Bin He, a professor of biomedicial engineering at the University of Michigan.

Learning how to control a helicopter with the power of thought is an intermediate step towards learning how to control a prosthetic arm, maybe even a hand by mental command. Perhaps even mentally-controlled prosthetic legs.

Though, of course, one can still foresee military uses down the line. The more intuitive a control system is, the more machinery has been made to adapt to man rather than man to machine, the better, I think.

posted by Ace at 02:12 PM

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