How I translated my brainwaves into motion
Posted by Chris Williamson in Singularity News
Richard Gray being instructed on how to use the machineby Dr John Gan [left] and PhD student Chun Sing Louis Tsui
By Richard Gray
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 20/07/2008
Even though I am screwing up my face in concentration, nothing is happening on the monitor in front of me. Then, suddenly, a small white bar shoots across the screen.
It may not sound like much, but I have just told the computer to do this using only my brain. I may look as though I’ve come straight from the set of a science fiction B-movie, but what I have just achieved is pretty amazing.
For the previous hour and a half, I have been prodded and pulled at by scientists as they fitted me with a skull cap with 10 electrodes sticking out of the top. Each of these sensors picks up the minute electrical activity produced by the neurons in my brain.
The computer I am wired to has to learn to recognise the electrical patterns my brain produces. I have repeatedly to imagine moving my left or right hand in response to cues on the screen in front of me. This allows the computer to recognise the electrical pattern. more>>>
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