Using Brain To Control Machines

I have to be honest the subject of touchless input, has been keeping my mind busy for several weeks now. I talked on the subject with several friends of mine. And everybody's reaction was showing some angst. Are the machines really going to read our minds?

Well... This is a problem. We don't want to lose the privacy of our thoughts.

A couple a weeks ago I pointed to the article describing the joint work of Intel and Carnegie Mellon University, quoting Justin Rattner, the CTO of Intel saying "Mind reading is the ultimate user interface.". I did not object then. But I do now.

Justin, I do not agree!

I still stand by my vision of directly coupling computers to our brains. But there will be no machines READING our minds. It will be the other way around. We will be CONTROLLING the machines with our brains. Let me explain.

Your hand. Your very hand. It does everything you want. It obeys the orders of your brain. But can you say your hand READS your mind? Never... It is your brain consciously an precisely sending targeted control signals to the muscles that move the hand. The hand does not think. It does not try to guess what is on your mind. It obeys the orders.

So a machine, a computer coupled to your brain will be just like your hand. A third, let us say, virtual one. For starters just imagine you will be controlling a mouse cursor. Up/down, left/right and click. Will the cursor read your mind? Obviously not. Will it respond to the commands issued by your brain? Certainly yes. Will you be able to control a computer this way? Absolutely.

Now, you may ask, how this will be done? We do not have the final device working yet... But let me point you to some resources.

The first is the last week's article referring to the work done at the University of Reading, UK, where a robot controlled by a network of neurons from rat's brain has been built. There is one striking phenomena described in the article. The sensor inputs and the control outputs have been fed to the "generic" neuron network via a number of pads. And the neurons learned how to use the pads, how to control the robot.

The second, an article published last week as well, describes the "RatCar" experiment conducted at the University of Tokyo. A robotic car driven by a rat. The rat coupled to the car by a number of electrodes implanted to the brain. Here again, it is not the motors of the car reading the rat's mind. It is the rat learning to control the motors.

The experiments show we are getting closer than ever to to mind controlled machines. And the "control" approach is the one we want, as opposed to the "mind reading". We are still early on this road. Commercial products will have to be non - invasive, meaning no implants. The learning process will have to be mastered. But it is hard to imagine where this will lead us... We know how to connect computers worldwide. When we make the step of connecting our brains to the computers, we will be connecting our brains together. Worldwide, realtime, collective intelligence...