Robotics Reference
In-Depth Information
Mind Reading
A logical extension of the idea of recognizing and measuring human emo-
tions using physiological sensors on parts of the body, is simply to add
the brain to the list of body parts, devising technologies to monitor and
interpret brain patterns. The idea of using the power of thought to drive
robotic movement was once in the realm of science fiction, but by 1977,
when the author Craig Thomas created the Firefox aircraft (made into a
Clint Eastwood movie in 1982), the idea was almost believeable. (Clint
Eastwood's character used thought-activated weapons to destroy his com-
munist enemies.) And already the first stage of the Firefox technology has
become a reality, with the announcement in November 2000 that electri-
cal signals from a monkey's brain, instructing the monkey's arm to move,
can be used to stir identical movement in a robotic arm.
A pioneer in this field of research as it relates to humans is Philip
Kennedy, a neurology professor at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.
He leads a project he started in 1989, recording and amplifying the hu-
man brain's electrical signals sufficiently to enable them to be used to
operate a computer. Using a
neurotrophic electrode
invented by Kennedy,
in conjunction with some customized micro electronics and software,
the brain's neural signals become, in effect, a computer mouse to move
a cursor and to select icons on the screen. In short, a computer system
controlled by the power of thought.
One of the most dramatic uses to date of this technology has been
at Georgia State University, where Professor Melody Moore and a team
from the Computer Information Systems Department have developed
software that helps a speechless patient to communicate by thought alone.
Johnny Ray, a 53-year-old paralyzed stroke victim at the Veterans Ad-
ministration Hospital in Decatur, Georgia, became the first human to
communicate via a computer cursor controlled only by his brain power.
Ray had some of Kennedy's electrodes connected to his brain and imag-
ined various movements of the cursor. The medical team told Ray what
cursor movements to think about and monitored Ray's neural signals so
they could detect which of them were related to which cursor move-
ments. After several months of trial and error Ray had managed to learn
which
imagined
movements would best control the cursor. His first big
success was when he was able to select the letters that make up F-I-V-E,
in response to the question: “How many children do you have?” The
word was spelled out on a virtual keyboard displayed on the computer's
