Mind-reading computers

Posted by admin on March 4, 2010 under News | Be the First to Comment

Huge crowds at the CeBIT fair gathered round a man sitting at a pinball table, wearing a cap covered in electrodes attached to his head, who controlled the flippers with great proficiency without using hands.

“He thinks, left hand or right hand and the electrodes monitor the brain waves associated with that thought, send the information to a computer, which then moves the flippers,” said Michael Tangermann, from the Berlin Brain Computer Interface.

But the technology is much more than a fun gadget, it could one day save your life.

Scientists are researching ways to monitor motorists’ brain waves to improve reaction times in a crash.

In an emergency stop situation, the brain activity kicks in on average around 200 milliseconds before even an alert driver can hit the brake. Read the whole story.