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By the year 2020, you won't need a keyboard and mouse to control your computer, say Intel Corp. researchers. Instead, users will open documents and surf the Web using nothing more than their brain waves.

Scientists at Intel's research lab in Pittsburgh are working to find ways to read and harness human brain waves so they can be used to operate computers, television sets and cell phones. The brain waves would be harnessed with Intel-developed sensors implanted in people's brains.

The scientists say the plan is not a scene from a sci-fi movie -- Big Brother won't be planting chips in your brain against your will. Researchers expect that consumers will want the freedom they will gain by using the implant.

Source: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9141180/Intel_Chips_in_brains_will_control_computers_by_2020

They can’t extract secret terrorist plots yet, but Utah bioengineers have implanted a brain chip in human test subjects that enables researchers to download brain data onto hard drives. The team working with the chip is hoping to make immediate improvements in the lives of people with epilepsy, paralysis or blindness, but say the chips may one day enable brain-native Internet browsing or most any other function currently possible with a computer.

The Utah Electrode Array’s purpose is analogous to a modem: It relays data from the brain to a computer, and vice-versa. It may soon enable thought control of bionic limbs like Luke Skywalker’s in Star Wars and, further in the future, may help the blind to see.

Neural Engineering Lab supervisor and University of Utah assistant professor Bradley Greger describes the chip as “a platform technology that is going to enable many, many new things.” With a grant from the National Institutes of Health, Greger and dozens of other scientists are pioneering brain-computing technology.

Source: http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/article-9318-brain-chip-may-help-the-blind-see.html

A team of scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS in Dresden, Germany, is working on a device which incorporates eye tracking to influence the content presented to the viewer. Without having to use any other devices to enter instructions, the wearer can display new content, scroll through a menu or shift picture elements simply by moving her eyes or fixing on certain points in the image.

“We want to make the eyeglasses bidirectional and interactive so that new areas of application can be opened up,” says Dr. Michael Scholles, business unit manager at IPMS.

According to Scholles, the bidirectional data eyeglasses will yield advantages over current head-mounted displays (HMDs) by providing information at the point of task to people who do not have their hands free to operate a keyboard or mouse. For example, mechanics could view superimposed schematic diagrams over machinery that they’re working on, and an operating surgeon can access a patients’ vital functions, MRT and x-ray images.

Source: http://blogs.zdnet.com/emergingtech/?p=1580

Researchers at USF have created a wheelchair with a robotic arm that is operated by capturing the user’s brain waves and converting them into actions, such as typing. This is just another example of a string of recent successes that heralds the coming revolution in brain computer interfaces (BCI) that is steadily underway.

In addition to a BCI controlled robotic arm, the wheelchair also includes a 3-D joy-stick, keypad, and touch screen, demonstrating the increasing versatility and functionality that technology can deliver to the disabled. As pointed out in our recent post about the Immaculate Prosthetic Arm, the day will eventually come when these limbs, tools, and attachments will actually exceed the abilities of normal human physiology. At this point prosthetic arms and wheelchair attachments for the disabled would quickly move into the domain of “normal” people, used to enhance completely normal body parts and functions.

Source: http://singularityhub.com/2009/02/11/researchers-develop-brain-controlled-wheelchair-robotic-arm/

Have you ever wished that you could live a life inside The Matrix, with your brain directly wired into a computer system that lets you go about life however you please in an imaginary world? Well, we're not quite there yet, but some researchers at the Keio University Biomedical Engineering Laboratory are getting close. Led by professor Jun'ichi Ushiba, the researchers have developed a brain-computer interface (BCI) that works directly with Second Life. Users can walk or fly their avatars throughout the virtual world, as well as move their limbs, change directions, and perform a variety of other tasks by merely thinking about it.

The technology is possible through the use of a headpiece equipped with electrodes attached to an electroencephalograph (EEG). The EEG then monitors for brain activity, particularly in the "cortical motor area" of the brain that controls bodily movement. It passes the signals through to the computer, which are then translated into commands within the game. Thus, thinking about walking forward, hopping on your giant, pink flamingo with your virtual girlfriend, and riding off into the sunset can all be possible within Second Life without having to lift a finger.

Source: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071015-researchers-help-users-control-second-life-avatars-via-brain-activity.html