Monkeys Control Robotic Arm With Brain Implants-Or Why To Buy More Tinfoil

[frank frankly]

SORRY TO SCARE EVERYBODY!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17434-2003Oct12.html

Monkeys Control Robotic Arm With Brain Implants

By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 13, 2003; Page A01


Scientists in North Carolina have built a brain implant that lets monkeys control a robotic arm with their thoughts, marking the first time that mental intentions have been harnessed to move a mechanical object.

< >

In the new experiments, monkeys with wires running from their brains to a robotic arm were able to use their thoughts to make the arm perform tasks. But before long, the scientists said, they will upgrade the implants so the monkeys can transmit their mental commands to machines wirelessly.

< >

The surgeries were painstaking, taking about 10 hours, and ended with the pouring of a substance like dental cement over the area to substitute for the missing bits of skull.

The monkeys were unaffected by the surgery, Nicolelis said. But now they had tufts of wires protruding from their heads, which could be hooked up to other wires that ran through a computer and on to a large mechanical arm.

[WheresWaldo]

1. hello matrix

wet-ware is here.

[Brucey]

2. Cool!

Neuroscientists are on the way toward helping paralyzed people move things using brain implants. This is great. I'm not scared even a little bit. Although, it is great fun to talk about misapplications of such things... a field known as neuroethics.

[frank frankly]

3. I am glad that you aren't scared

Perhaps it is just me, but after reading the whole article, my first thought is that this is only the science we are told about. What is happening, then, on the cutting edge of this?

[Occulus]

4. I'm thinking more about

the bleeding edge.

This is huge. This advance has the potential to be among the telephone, automobile, and computer in terms of impact on the human race.

Now, if I were able to stimulate the visual cortex of the brain in specific and recognizable ways in conjunction with what this article mentions, what would I have? Hmmmmmm.

The applications are myriad. I'm of the opinion that this is a good thing.

[phgnome]

5. Scary

Very scary that even a chimp can control a machine with its thoughts. What if the machine they're controlling happens to be a weapon or, god forbid, an airplane?

[maggrwaggr]

11. Killer chimps! Calling Roger Corman!

I can see the movie now.

Sorta like that Dogs and Cats movie, only bloody.

[Jesus H. Christ]

22. Here about these newfangled things called exacto-knives?

nt

[kysrsoze]

27. Well, I would hope I were a better pilot or soldier than a chimp

Hell, they already do the same thing with 7-y/o kids in Africa. You could probably just throw the monkey a banana or something.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

6. Are they also responsible for the trained chimp...

...that sits in the White House once in a while?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

28. Not to worry.

This one doesn't have a brain to attach electrodes to.

[Paschall]

7. Not true

<snip> marking the first time that mental intentions have been harnessed to move a mechanical object ... </snip>

This kind of thing has been done repeatedly, not only in earlier experiments with prosthetics, but even in the field of art. See Stelarc.

[Democat]

8. Did the previous ones connect with nerves or directly with the brain?

I have heard of prosthetics controled by nerves, but I don't know about directly by the brain.

[Paschall]

12. Trick question I suppose

The Post's formulation is a bit vague: "mental intentions" could also imply "intentions" conveyed via the peripheral nervous system (ie nerves in limbs), I think. Your formulation--"directly by the brain"--is more precise. I wonder why the writer didn't use it.

Regardless, the idea of Terminator type soldiers with brain implants controlling robots on extension cords is a bit terrifying. Surely control could not be handled via radio waves. Can a microwave transmitter be implanted in a human being? In a human brain? I guess the next step is cell phone implants?!?

[Devils Advocate NZ]

9. Wait a minute!

Scientists in North Carolina have built a brain implant that lets monkeys control a robotic arm with their thoughts, marking the first time that mental intentions have been harnessed to move a mechanical object

Bullshit! The US airforce has a history of experiments on such things, including one being shown on Discovery channel months if not years ago where a person trained their mind to supress or strengthen a certain brain wave that allowed the pilot to fly a simple flight simulator. When he thought "left", the simulator turned left (actually it tipped over to the left) and when he thought "right" it tipped over to the right.

Another Discovery Channel documentary had a man who was paralysed being fitted with a device similar to the one mentioned in this article, except instead of a mechanical arm, his thoughts drove his OWN hand. By thinking "open" his hand opened, and by thinking "close" his hand closed.

This may be an intersting variation, but it is NOT the first time "mental intentions have been harnessed to move a mechanical object"!

[Occulus]

10. If I only respond to what you posted

you're not quite right...

I saw the VR brainwave thing as well. The pilot was 'thinking' movements to the camera of the VR animation and the animation responded accordingly; he was moving the camera through a series of yellow rings on the screen. Not the same thing as attatching electrodes directly to nerves... not by a long shot.

The thing with the paralyzed man's hand... well, that's not exactly mechanical, is it? That's more along the lines of restoring normal body movement to the paralyzed, something medicine has desired for a looooong time.

So yes, if I only take the examples you list, this indeed is the first time that a living brain has manipulated a mechanical object.

[Paschall]

13. Check out the link to Stelarc above

He uses "mental intentions" to control not only mechanical objects, but also other bodies via connections to his limbs with impulses conveyed over the internet to bodies thousands of miles away.

ON EDIT: Here's one of Stelarc's pieces.



"Third Arm"

The artificial hand, attached to the right arm as an addition rather than as a prosthetic replacement, is capable of independent motion, being activated by the EMG signals of the abdominal and leg muscles. It has a pinch-release, grasp-release, 290 degree wrist rotation ( clockwise and anti-clockwise ) and a tactile feedback system for a rudimentary "sense of touch".

Whilst the body activates its extra manipulator, the real left arm is remote-controlled / jerked into action by two muscle stimulators. Electrodes positioned on the flexor muscles and biceps curl the fingers inwards, bend the wrist and thrust the arm upwards.

The triggerings of the arm motions pace the performance and the stimulator signals are used as sound sources, as is the motor sound of the Third Hand mechanism itself.

http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/third/third.html

(I've seen Stelarc demonstrate several of his works, including the long-distance control of other bodies. He ended his demo by saying he looks forward to the day when the human body's internal organs will all be replaced by technology.) :shrug:

[Devils Advocate NZ]

15. Not so...

With the Air Force experiment, an EEG device picked up the electrical activity of the brain and transmitted that to the mechanical flight simulator. He was actually sitting in a device that tipped from side to side when he thought "left" or "right"

With the paralysed man, an implant was placed in his brain that picked up the signals and transmitted them to another device that used electic impulses to stimulate the muscles.

In both cases a living brain had directly interacted with a mechanical device.

You could say this was the first time a living brain was connected via an implant to an external robotic arm, but no more.

The story claimed it was "the first time that mental intentions have been harnessed to move a mechanical object", which is not true. Mental intentions had been harnessed via an EEG to manipulate a mechanical device, and mental intentions had been harnessed via an implant to elctronically stimulate muscles.

What is more important is that both of those experiments involved HUMAN subjects, whereas the article refers to a non-human subject. I would be interested to know if these other experiments involved non-human subjects in their early stages, because that would put back the date of first success even further.

[n0_data]

31. I saw it too

at least a year ago. It wouldn't be surprising to see a synergy between mind/machine control and UCAVs:


http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/ucav.htm

In future wars (which there's sure to be), we'll be seeing UCAVs in the battlefield, augmenting manned aircraft. At first they'll be used for precision strikes such as taking out key air defense systems, paving the way for the manned aircraft. In time, and as systems improve, I imagine manned air-combat will become obsolete altogether. It only stands to reason as the pilot is a performance inhibitor when it comes to combat aircraft design.

Unmanned reconnaissance drones are already the norm. It won't be long before unmanned combat vehicles are rolling off production lines.

Yesterday, C-Span aired a program on that talked a little bit about UCAVs. It was called AEI Panel on the Future of the Defense Industry. That was a happy go lucky group; a bunch of military industrialists talking about future wars and future profits in the same breath. Here is the RealPlayer stream url:

rtsp://12.170.145.134:554/gdrive/15days/e101003_aei.rm?cloakport=8080,554,7070

[Shanty Oilish]

14. Sure, dental cement implanted by clowns, right?

I could have used a monkey with a large mechanical arm, too.

[Rex]

16. It's only a matter of time

before cyber-monkeys take over the planet! Ruuuuuuuuuun!!!!

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

17. Was it Mickey, Peter, Davey or Mike Nesmith?

[Minstrel Boy]

18. "The monkeys were unaffected by the surgery"

That bullshit comment disturbs me most of all.

[BigDaddyLove]

30. "But now they had tufts of wires protruding from their heads",

Wires protruding from head = unaffected?

Huh? :shrug:

[0rganism]

19. I wonder what the chimps would use a mechanical arm to do?

:wow:

Man, that is fucked up.

If anyone puts Windows CE on those damn things, we're in deep shit. Just imagine every hack or bug that fucks with your computer, applied to a mechanical limb or robot or whatever instead.

I wonder if people consider the consequences of pranking when they do this kind of research.

[NashVegas]

20. Welcome to the Machine

So they've found a new way for humans to assist machines.

What unimaginable fun!

Our newest renewable source of energy, the human brain. Maybe after a full day's work, we might have a few brain cells left to use for our own purposes.

Who wants to be first to sign up?

[frank frankly]

21. no thanks

:kick:

[THUNDER HANDS]

23. and the purpose of this is ultimately....

To make U.S. soldiers capable of firing their weapons just by thinking 'FIRE.'

You heard it here first.

[lostnfound]

24. No, I heard it on NPR first -- DoD is funding part of it ...

to allow soldiers to 'fly planes and operate equipment' just by thinking about it. Tonight's NPR newscast at around 5 pm had exactly that statement in it -- Department of Defense is helping to fund it.

[nolabels]

25. Is this what you are getting on about?

On some aspects tech was way behind what one could imagine a couple decades ago, I think its starting to catch up

http://www.mayanmajix.com/art_bb.html
http://www.mayanmajix.com/art132.html
(snip)
Brain Machine Interfaces

Program Manager: Dr. Alan Rudolph

The Brain Machine Interfaces Program represents a major DSO thrust area that will comprise a multidisciplinary, multipronged approach with far reaching impact. The program will create new technologies for augmenting human performance through the ability to noninvasively access codes in the brain in real time and integrate them into peripheral device or system operations. Focus will be on the following areas:

1. Extraction of neural and force dynamic codes related to patterns of motor or sensory activity required for executing simple to complex motor or sensory activity (e.g., reaching, grasping, manipulating, running, walking, kicking, digging, hearing, seeing, tactile). Accessing sensory activity directly could result in the ability to monitor or transmit communications by the brain (visual, auditory, or other). This will require the exploitation of new interfaces and algorithms for providing useful nonlinear transformation, pattern extraction techniques, and the ability to test these in appropriate models or systems.
(snip)
(snip)
6. Biomimetic implementation of controllers (with robotics or other devices and systems) that integrate neural sensory or motor control integrated with force dynamic and sensory feedback from a working device or system. The first phase of the program may include dynamic control of simple and complex motor or sensory activity directly using neural codes integrated into a machine, device, or system. Simple actions considered include using a robotic arm or leg to sense a target, reach for it and manipulate it, throw or kick an object at a target, or recognize a sensory input and responding to it (visual, acoustic) directly through input/output brain integration. More complex activity may include issues related to force or sensory perturbation in more complex environments.


Solicitation Information:
Defense Sciences Research and Technology
Special Focus Area: Brain Machine Interfaces
Announcement #: BAA01-42, Addendum 1
CBD Reference: September 17, 2001
(snip)

[frank frankly]

26. bingo

you win a brand new "smart chip"!

great catch, nolabels!

[nolabels]

29. No, not that, anything but that (hehe)

I really have to look at these folks with a grain of salt, and think of things that are possible as well as things that are not. Wireless keyboards, Cell phones and digital cameras are some new things for us common folks. But a few of the people thinking up some of this stuff are just plain nutty or even yucky pucky

Check this in at the fiction section
http://conspiracyarchive.com/NWO/microchip_implants_mind_control.htm
Microchip Implants, Mind Control,
and Cybernetics

But this one is quite real
http://www.mayanmajix.com/art065.html
They want to know our every move
I'd Rather Go Naked
by Mary Starrett, http://NewsWithViews.com , March 13, 2003

Then this one is nutty, real and ugly (in my opinion)
http://www.aesop-project.org/Israel/Experiments_exposed_news1.html
HORRIFIC PRIMATE EXPERIMENTS EXPOSED IN ISRAEL

[frank frankly]

32. yikes

:kick: