Registered: Aug 2000
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The BrainGate Neural Interface creates a direct link between a person's brain and a computer, translating neural activity into action. Matthew Nagle, without use of his limbs but fitted with a BrainGate, can now play a videogame or change channels on TV using only his mind. Here's how it works. - Greta Lorge

1. The chip: A 4-millimeter square silicon chip studded with 100 hair-thin microelectrodes is embedded in Nagle's primary motor cortex - the region of the brain responsible for controlling movement.

2. The connector: When Nagle thinks "move cursor up and left" (toward email icon), his cortical neurons fire in a distinctive pattern; the signal is transmitted through the pedestal plug attached to his skull.

3. The converter: The signal travels to a shoebox-sized amplifier mounted on Nagle's wheelchair, where it's converted to optical data and bounced by fiber-optic cable to a computer.

4. The computer: BrainGate learns to associate patterns of brain activity with particular imagined movements - up, down, left, right - and to connect those movements to a cursor.


http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.03/brain.html

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Registered: Jul 2001
Location: China
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Now all I need is a bedpan and I won't have to get up for anything!

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Registered: Aug 2000
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You need a NeoRest interface.

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Registered: Jan 2002
Location: Shreveport, LA
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hmm...it occurs to me that a better use of this technology would be enabling him to use his brain to control the wheelchair, rather than a fucking computer cursor.
that, or installing it in the heads of fighter jocks. you can handle more G's when you don't have to hold your hands out in front of you like that.

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Registered: Jan 2002
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also, someone should introduce matthew nagle to everquest. then he can have a virtual life.

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Registered: Aug 2000
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For the crippled I think it's a great idea. The next step should definatly be to allow the guy to control his chair and perhaps other things around him.

Beyond that sort of use I'm not too enthusiastic. I don't really like the idea of people having chips in their heads. A "Thinking Cap" type interface however could have many uses as well as the pleasure of being able to take the device off.

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Registered: Aug 2000
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Strange Days style. There was a BME article about this posted on Fark the other day. The Coming Robot-Human Apocalypse.

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Registered: Jul 2001
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If they could reverse the direction, video games could give us orgasms.

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Registered: Jul 2000
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Man, I'm all for a chip in my head. Fuck you guys, plug me in.

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I also fully believe shit like this will be the next step in our evolution as a species, no matter what you think about it. I still have the link to the Meaning of Life in my profile.

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Registered: Jan 2002
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first meaningful step toward cyborgs, this is.

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Resistance is Futile.

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Registered: Feb 2003
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Using it for fighter pilots is tricky right now; from what I know, the interface is not yet 100% accurate, and probably not fast enough. That's just a matter of time, though.
Controlling a wheelchair should be no problem, and I agree is a great idea. Prosthetics too, although that requires a finer degree of control.

Nothing inherently wrong with cyborgs; the notion that one loses emotional integrity with increasing implants has no particular evidence behind it, that I know of. On the other hand, I'm immune to EMPs at the moment; I'd hesitate before putting something in my head which could theoretically receive interference from a badly tuned radio.

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Registered: Feb 2003
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Pretty impressive article, though. The tech is a little farther along than I thought. I like that they noted that, while he started by thinking of moving the cursor with his hand, he now just moves the cursor. They're right; the cursor is now effectively a part of his body. Put a chip in the somatosensory cortex, and stimulate it the right way, and he should be able to "feel" hyperlinks, rather than just seeing the cursor change shape.

BTW: This post dedicated to Avondale.

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Registered: Feb 2004
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quote:

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Originally posted by Talarohk
Nothing inherently wrong with cyborgs; the notion that one loses emotional integrity with increasing implants has no particular evidence behind it, that I know of.

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What if you have a seizure?
Where would the wheelchair go?
Or the airplane?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Large Filipino
Where would the wheelchair go?

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oh.

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Depends on where the seizure was and where it spread. It might be possible to include seizure-detection routines which could temporarily diable the interface in such an event, though.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Talarohk

BTW: This post dedicated to Avondale.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Hawley Griffin
something interesting to think about :

the brain has around 100 billion neurons. now lets slowly but surely swap out one of those neurons with an artificial one, which behaves and acts exactly like the one that was take away. The patient feels in no way different, his senses/thoughts/whatever work exactly the same as before.

now lets speed up the process and replace 100% of his neurons with artificial ones. is the patient still human? if not, at what stage did he stop being human?

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