OK Stupid idea here. I remember watching a TV programme on Brain scans and seeing little pictures of brain activity. Does anyone know if the patterns are similar if you think about the same thing? If a thought could be recognised by it's resultant electrical pattern it'd be quite simple to have sensors pick up on the pattern and associate it with an action. Like I think TV the TV turns on as receptors pick up the pattern my brain makes when I think about television. Of course it'd be specific to each person. I believe Bill Gates has something similar whereby the pictures on his walls are really ultra thin displays. The pictures change dependant upon mood as ascertained by heart rate, respiration, perspiration etc.
-- AJCrowley, Apr 16 2003

The Holy Grail of User Input http://www.arstechn...ews/1045676030.html
The Holy Grail! If that's not magic, I don't know what is! Anyway, controlling things through brain waves is still nowhere near an original idea. [DrCurry, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

Remote Control Brains http://abcnews.go.c...ews/rats020501.html
Looks like you TV remote will soon be controlling *you*. But then, it is probably already is. [DrCurry, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

Scientific American Frontiers http://www.pbs.org/...segments/1107-5.htm
"...ex-Air Force researcher Andrew Junker is working towards the day when you can sail a boat, fly a jet or move a computer's cursor around the screen just by thinking about it. In fact, Junker himself already can." [half, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

Six Year Old Killed During MRI http://www.mercola....2001/aug/15/mri.htm
An article which gives you an idea of just how powerful the magnetic systems in an MRI machine are. [bristolz, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

Project Epoc http://www.emotiv.com/2_0/2_1.htm
Brainwave sensor helmet: "the experience of playing "The Incredible Hulk" will never be the same." [jutta, Mar 02 2007]

Presumably something that makes him sweaty, linux's growing market share or a pc with big hard-disks are two of many possibilies...
-- silverstormer, Apr 16 2003


[DrCurry], you're wrong. This is NOT magic and is actually under development. Thought pattern recognition using a sophisticated EEG has been sucessfully demonstrated by British Telecom research laboratories in the UK about 3 years ago. Research is also be ing carried out on brain activity sensing using arrays of devices called SQUIDs (Superconducting Quantum Interferometry Devices) which can be used to reliably and rpeatably sense neural activity.

Google should throw up quite a few references ..... but I dispute the [m-f-d].
-- 8th of 7, Apr 16 2003


[8th]!
-- bristolz, Apr 16 2003


I remember reading somewhere *years ago* that the US military were researching this sort of thing. I thought it was in Supernature, but a quick skim fails to reveal it. I'm pretty sure that the exact words were "the pilot just thinks 'fire' and away goes the ordnance. This is not widely regarded as a good idea."
Oh, and hi, [8th].
-- angel, Apr 16 2003


8th: yeah, yeah, people are working on it. A while back, someone issued a computer input device that picked up the user's brainwaves. The reviewer I read said he got just the same results from placing a wet cabbage in front of it. My point is that this ranks right up there with GM (which is also "under development") as a way of solving random problems. But I'll back off and let the admins decide on its viability.
-- DrCurry, Apr 16 2003


So, [DrC]. That might simply mean that the students they used as guinea pigs for experiments had the same brain power as a wet cabbage. Doesn't disprove it.
-- PeterSilly, Apr 16 2003


// The reviewer I read said he got just the same results from placing a wet cabbage in front of it //

All you can deduce from that is that journalists have the same intellectual capacity as wet cabbage, and I certainly won't dispute THAT conclusion.....
-- 8th of 7, Apr 16 2003


I think I saw this on the X Files.
-- snarfyguy, Apr 16 2003


But Gates might be able to afford it.

I've had MRIs and one things is for sure: you need to wear hearing protection.
-- bristolz, Apr 16 2003


I knew I saw something possibly semi-credible on this not too long ago. (link)
-- half, Apr 16 2003


You could get a very small woman and stick her to the side of your head and give her a "little" remote control.....they always know what your thinking.
-- silverstormer, Apr 17 2003


The 1982 film "Firefox", produced by and starring Clint Eastwood, rather convincingly promoted the idea that the Russians had developed a supersonic jet fighter which had advanced "thought controlled" weapon systems. While I accepted the premise as science fiction at the time, I also thought it was the kind of fiction that we were on the cusp of achieving. I'm almost a bit surprised that 21 years later it's not proven technology.
-- jurist, Apr 17 2003


I knew you would say that :)
-- po, Apr 17 2003


Wow, [Rods] - I wrote an article for ST World too!
-- PeterSilly, Apr 17 2003


Okay fine, but can you get remote control combo CAT, PET and MRI pornography?
-- snarfyguy, Apr 17 2003


There is a different approach, though it might belong more in the metaphysics section. You might call it New Age technology or something like that. But there is solid science backing it up. Do a search on Cleve Baxter. He was able to alter the electrical activity in plants just by using his thoughts and emotions. The plants, hooked up to a polygraph, would change their electrical activity if he suddenly thought about tearing off a leaf or setting the plant on fire. Even from several dozen miles away, whenever he suddenly felt some intense type of emotion like being startled he would jot down the time of day. Then when he got back home he would check the polygraph readings that were running at his home while hooked up to the plants and notice spikes in the readings at the same times as he had jotted down in his notebook. He even set up some elaborate system whereby he used his thoughts to trigger electrical activity in a plant to operate his garage door opener, though I can't locate the specific reference for that off-hand.

Someone else by the name of Marcel Vogel did a parellel type of research on plants and crystals. Those would be a bit more user-friendly than plants for technology purposes. His experiments spanned distances of 8000 miles and still registered responses in in reaction to his thoughts.

They apparently found a way of getting around the inverse square law of EMF with a new type of energy that was activated by thought (psi)
-- Anarch, Aug 27 2003


Has Anyone read Tom CLancys Net Force It has some quite interesting ideas for neural implants eg. letting you go into full virtual reality that tracks all your movements and gives you sensory feedback through an implanted chip no glasses vr suit vr gloves or anything just a implanted chip
-- clarkeo, Jul 02 2004


// But there is solid science backing it up.// On behalf of solid scientists: no there isn't.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 02 2007



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