"Advances in brain-to-machine connections" in The Economist reminds me of news on TV last year. That news presented a technology which helps disabled people move their hands by thinking and that device had to be implanted in their bodies.
José Contreras-Vidal and his colleagues at the University of Maryland did an experiment by using a cap with sensors. They found that the "sensor over the primary sensorimotor cortex, a region of the brain associated with voluntary movement, was the most accurate" (¶ 5). Moreover, Klaus-Robert Müller of the Berlin Institute of Technology said that if a person wants to get a thing, he do not need to think about moving his hand to get it.
I think it is a good news for disabled people. They can see the development of technology and will have hope. However, I wonder that what happens in the brain when we are thinking to do something. If I want to pick up a glass, is it similar to I want to walk? Because I saw only the test about controlling hand, I want to know whether or not these technology can be used to control legs. Besides, I think about two movies, which are the Surrogate and Avatar. In the movies, the characters can control robots by thinking. I think that the movies reflect the reality and in the future we will be able to do like the characters.
José Contreras-Vidal and his colleagues at the University of Maryland did an experiment by using a cap with sensors. They found that the "sensor over the primary sensorimotor cortex, a region of the brain associated with voluntary movement, was the most accurate" (¶ 5). Moreover, Klaus-Robert Müller of the Berlin Institute of Technology said that if a person wants to get a thing, he do not need to think about moving his hand to get it.
I think it is a good news for disabled people. They can see the development of technology and will have hope. However, I wonder that what happens in the brain when we are thinking to do something. If I want to pick up a glass, is it similar to I want to walk? Because I saw only the test about controlling hand, I want to know whether or not these technology can be used to control legs. Besides, I think about two movies, which are the Surrogate and Avatar. In the movies, the characters can control robots by thinking. I think that the movies reflect the reality and in the future we will be able to do like the characters.
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References
Advances in brain-to-machine connections. (2010, March 11). The Economist. Retrieved March 15, 2010 from http://www.economist.com/science-technology/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15660882
Advances in brain-to-machine connections. (2010, March 11). The Economist. Retrieved March 15, 2010 from http://www.economist.com/science-technology/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15660882
Not just the advances that are being made in areas like this, but the ever accelerating rate of advance amazes me. Our technology is now zipping along at such a rate that I would hesitate to guess what might be possible in ten years. I look at old (10 - 15 years) films today, and see things like bulky monitors, and phones that are awkward and attached to walls or cars, and realise that pretty well everyone failed to predict how thoroughly, and how quickly, things like mobile and flat screens would spread, and don't even mention the internet, which is still a baby. What will it be like ten years from today?
ReplyDeleteAnd speaking of brains, what if persons no longer even need a brain? What if we could upload ourselves into a computer? (I haven't seen Avatar yet. Does something like this happen in the film, or is teh person still tied to and created by a human brain?)