Sci/Tech Scientist uses his brain to control another guy's finger

[The Helper]

University of Washington researcher Rajesh Rao, left, plays a computer game with his mind. Across campus, researcher Andrea Stocco, right, wears a magnetic stimulation coil over the left motor cortex region of his brain. Stocco’s right index finger moved involuntarily to hit the “fire” button as part of the human brain-to-brain interface demonstration.

The world of mind-control zombie armies may have gotten just a little closer: Scientists say they've hooked up one person's brain to the Internet, to control the finger of another person playing a video game.

“The Internet was a way to connect computers, and now it can be a way to connect brains,” University of Washington psychology professor Andrea Stocco said Tuesday in a news release. “We want to take the knowledge of a brain and transmit it directly from brain to brain.”

Stocco played the role of the mind slave in the experiment. Rajesh Rao, a computer science and engineering professor at the University of Washington, played the part of the puppetmaster. Or should that be the fingermaster?

How it was done:
On Aug. 12, Rao sat in his lab, wearing a cap with electrodes hooked up to an electroencephalography machine. The EEG machine read Rao's brain activity while he watched a simple cannon-shooting video game unfold on a video screen. When it was time for Rao to shoot the cannon, he imagined moving his right hand to hit a "fire" button — while making sure not to move the hand in real life.

Read more about it here: http://www.nbcnews.com/science/mind...-brain-control-another-guys-finger-8C11015078

 

[rover2341]

imagine i could a national star craft tournament with this!!!

 

[camelCase]

Let's create a game called "Necromancy". It's an RTS where you play a necromancer and raise and control an undead army with nothing but your mind.

I would pay a lot to play that game.

 

[Dan]

"This is not a breakthrough brain interface, because the second subject has no choice," Nicolelis told NBC News. "A computer could have sent that signal to a magnetic stimulator, and the stimulator will make the movements happen. ... It's very similar to sending the signal to a muscle. There is no message in the electrical pulse."
Nicolelis said that the experiment was a nice demonstration, but that Rao, Stocco and their colleagues may have "pulled the trigger a little too quickly" on announcing their results. "I'm afraid that people will take this and think that we are one step from mind control, and this is not even close," Nicolelis said.

 

[DarkRevenant]

It does act as a proof of concept. If taken to its logical conclusion, this would allow mindlink -- a form of limited telepathy -- with all sorts of practical applications. Both participants must have the right equipment and training, and be otherwise connected, but think of, say, the kind of incredible tactical advantage this would have in the military.

 

[Accname]

I wonder. A paralysed person can not move its limbs because the nerves are damaged. The signal from the brain has no way to travel to the muscles.
Would it be able to use something like this to make a disabled person move again? That would be kind of a big deal.

 

[WildTurkey]

Nope we could not unless they were mentally disabled. Then we could make them look normal. Also; at the moment we need the right kind of equipment etc but it's only a matter of time before it's all wireless and that's the point in time where this could be a legit threat to security. Probably have chips implanted in gov. officials skulls or something to prevent it. At some point all this shit will happen, just a matter of time.

 

[iPeez]

but think of, say, the kind of incredible tactical advantage this would have in the military.

dont go there..