« We'll be there in a few minutes ... | Main | be here now »
September 27, 2005
Post modern thinking cap ...
Gert Pfurtscheller of Graz University of Technology in Austria has created a "thinking cap" to detect activity in certain brain areas linked to movement, and use the signals to mimic that movement in a virtual world.
The technology detects brain waves by using electrodes placed at strategic points on the scalp; they are positioned over brain areas known to be involved in moving specific body parts. The computer can then distinguish between signals corresponding to different types of movement.
"Just thinking about movement activates the same neurons as actually moving," explains Prof. Pfurtscheller.
The device has not-so-virtual reality - using the system to reintegrate the brain and motor systems in people suffering brain injuries. A video clip illustrating this application is available at http://bci.tugraz.at/TOM_BCI_FES.mpg
Sources:
Michael Hopkins, Computer users move themselves with the mind : Electrode cap allows users to think themselves along a virtual street., Nature Online, Published online: 27 September 2005; | doi:10.1038/news050926-5. http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050926/full/050926-5.html
Laboratory of Brain-Computer Interfaces, TUG (Technical University of Graz), 2005. http://www.dpmi.tugraz.at/fes.html
Posted by sjc at September 27, 2005 4:06 PM
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)