HATOYAMA, Japan - Forget the clicker: A new technology in Japan could let you control electronic devices without lifting a finger simply by reading brain activity.

The "brain-machine interface" developed by Hitachi Inc. analyzes slight changes in the brain's blood flow and translates brain motion into electric signals.

A cap connects by optical fibers to a mapping device, which links, in turn, to a toy train set via a control computer and motor during one recent demonstration at Hitachi's Advanced Research Laboratory in Hatoyama, just outside Tokyo.

"Take a deep breath and relax," said Kei Utsugi, a researcher, while demonstrating the device on Wednesday.

At his prompting, a reporter did simple calculations in her head, and the train sprang forward — apparently indicating activity in the brain's frontal cortex, which handles problem solving.

Activating that region of the brain — by doing sums or singing a song — is what makes the train run, according to Utsugi. When one stops the calculations, the train stops, too.

Underlying Hitachi's brain-machine interface is a technology called optical topography, which sends a small amount of infrared light through the brain's surface to map out changes in blood flow.

Although brain-machine interface technology has traditionally focused on medical uses, makers like Hitachi and Japanese automaker Honda Motor Co. have been racing to refine the technology for commercial application.

Hitachi's scientists are set to develop a brain TV remote controller letting users turn a TV on and off or switch channels by only thinking. <snip>

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070622/ap_on_...an_brain_remote

That's really cool, but it leaves room for people to get a little lazy.

look amazing

The ramifications for the human race with this kind of technology that could actually change the course of human evolution is astonishing. It could be a great thing because the trend will be towards increasing human brain power and learning control the brain's functions which we currently cannot do. The possibilities opened by this are literally mind-blowing. It could also turn a whole class of people into pariahs--people who aren't particularly intelligent and who don't really use their brains for much beyond keeping their ears from touching. Dummies could be left out in the cold.

Since Asians are supposed to be the smartest people who use their brains more efficiently, such technology could allow Asians to race far ahead beyond everybody else.

But I doubt this because despite such an important breakthrough as this and what it potentially means for human life and evolution, you can count the number of responses its thread gets on one hand and still have fingers left over. Meanwhile, posters just can't seem to to stop yacking about incredibly important developments as Miss Japan winning Miss Universe--that was like 3 weeks ago, people--and so far 3 pages of response to an utterly stupid, pointless thread about some white b!tch some guy for some reason thinks looks Japanese. A thread like that should die a fast one, but it drags on and on and on and on.

It's good to know Asians have their priorities set.

Awsome thread. The idea of actually using your brain as the primary interface is astonishing.... Think of how it could change the lives of the disabled??

That would be awesome for video games.

I'll definitely be a beached whale.

I have a cousin with cerebral palsy but she's very intelligent. She can control the toes on her left foot and some head movements. Her mac is specially rigged so that she can do computer graphics which is her bread and butter. She even has AT&T as a client. She sky dives too.

We trade emails and it's amazing how smart she is. With a brain-interface at her command in a future society where brain-interface has become the primary accepted form of public discourse, it is so-called normal people who would be handicapped. Her brain has incredibly complex wiring. You couldn't keep up with her. Her handicap has given her thinking abilities you or I couldn't have. People like her, in fact, would drive the brain-interface R&D because she would quickly master it and need something that does more and be able to tell them exactly in what ways which would open up yet more vistas.

Think of it. Things like the holideck on the Star Trek series wouldn't be too far off. Imagine living any fantasy as though it were real. Imagine how it would change the way we think and communicate. Eventually entire bodies of knowledge could be passed from brain to brain in a direct tranfer through this interface technology or into a computer bank to be processed infinite ways. Think how much knoweldge can be preserved in this fashion.

Socities where conformity is more accepted than maverickism, could become deadly rivals for us freethinking Americans. Japan could kill us with this technology if we don't get busy exploring it--and we have. Companies like VPL were experimenting with very similar things which involving playing a bank of synthesizers merely by thinking about it back in the early 90s. Those who tried it said the feeling afterwards is one of total euphoria beyond what any drug gives.

But the Japanese are making it commercially available for a wide variety of practical uses of everyday life and THAT is how a new technology soon becomes indispensible. Like I resisted getting a cell phone for a long time until my job became such that I was unable to perform anymore without one. Now that I've come to depend on it so much, I cannot do without a cellphone, just like I cannot do without a computer or a car or electricity and running water. Once brain-interfacing becomes this interwoven into our cultural fabric, we're locked in and we're going to have to compete against the likes of the Japanese and that is not going to be easy. In fact, I don't see us being much competition. Then with China, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia and the like getting in on the act, the West could find itself in truly serious trouble.

Let us not forget that Indians, Persians and Arab peoples have shown themselves to be superb mathematicians.

Imagine going to war against heavily-armored robots operated by brain-interface that can carry out commands instantaneously. An entire army of them could pour onto a battlefield entirely under the control of one brain--someone who stands far off and watches and move his soldiers around on command instantaneously like a chess champion. You wouldn't have a chance.

Or to use said robots to explore where we have been so limited by such as enviroment. The oceans, the solar system? The potential can not be measured. My daughter who is autistic but struggles to express herself or communicate with such a device may become completely functional. 1 fathers most profound dream come true.