http://www.sync-blog.com/sync/2011/04/cursor-controlled-by-brain-waves-the-m
elding-of-man-and-machine.html
April 8, 2011 at 6:41 pm
Cursor controlled by brain waves: the melding of man and machine
By Rhonda CallowComments (19)
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Could the brain replace the mouse? It's certainly possible.
According to a paper entitled Using the electrocorticographic speech network
to control a brain-computer interface in humans in the Journal of Neural
Engineering, researchers have discovered that brain waves can control a
cursor.
Brain signals have been used in the past to control mechanical devices - for
example, in 2009 Toyota revealed a brain-machine interface that enabled a
person to steer a wheelchair. But what's different about this process is
that it uses electrocorticography (ECoG) rather than electroencephalography
(EEG). The paper's abstract explains:
"Classically, the cortical physiology that has been commonly investigated
and utilized for device control in humans has been brain signals from the
sensorimotor cortex. Hence, it was unknown whether other neurophysiological
substrates, such as the speech network, could be used to further improve on
or complement existing motor-based control paradigms. We demonstrate here
for the first time that ECoG signals associated with different overt and
imagined phoneme articulation can enable invasively monitored human patients
to control a one-dimensional computer cursor rapidly and accurately. This
phonetic content was distinguishable within higher gamma frequency
oscillations and enabled users to achieve final target accuracies between
68% and 91% within 15 min."
So, basically, it seems that ECoG techniques enable intentions to be better
understood than EEG. This is primarily because, unlike EEG, ECoG is invasive
and relies on electrodes implanted directly into the brain. Speaking to the
BBC, the paper's lead author, Eric Leuthardt, explained:
"You cannot get the spatial or the signal resolution. One of the key
features in signal resolution is seeing the higher frequencies of brain
activity - those higher frequencies have a substantial capability of giving
us better insights into cognitive intentions, and part of the reason EEG
suffers for this is it acts as a filter of all of these high frequency
signals."
ECoG could obviously have substantial benefits for the disabled. Beyond that
we could, I suppose, eventually use brain-machine interfaces to control all
manner of devices from TVs to video games to - well, pretty much anything
really.
What do you think about this melding of man and machine? Leave a comment and
share your thoughts.
Filed Under: News > Science
Tags: brain waves, brain-computer, brain-machine, ECoG, Science
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