The machine makes it possible to type messages onto a computer screen by mentally controlling the movement of a cursor. A user must wear a cap containing electrodes that measure electrical activity inside the brain, known as an electroencephalogram (EEG) signal, and imagine moving their left or right arm in order to manoeuvre the cursor around.|link|
So we can’t read your intentions directly off your brain, but we can indirectly figure out where you imagine moving your arms. So the subjects must actually think about moving their arms, and not the cursor, in order to get the cursor to move. I wonder if this process can become transparent, the way we use our mouse and keyboard now; or if making the motor commands explicit in consciousness will wind up limiting the use of these sorts of tools beyond anything practical.
I was going to say something coherent but, instead, I’m just going to go change my underwear. (Soon, eripsa’s army of giant crusher robots controlled entirely by his devious and racially superior brain will take over the earth.) As with any technology, the practical limits are still unknown. One can predict that, pretty soon, they will take this a step further by putting wires directly into the cranium to detect ever-finer variations in regional activation. I suppose the limit would be where implanting more wires actually interferes with neural function. But it’s still not clear how one would control the motion of fine-grained tools… would you have to think certain equations, or something, over and over to “train” the detection apparatus to follow certain commands, or would it end up being a smoother, more analog (so to speak) more of control over acceleration vectors via “imagining” doing different things? After all, there is no reason to suppose that the detector could be rigged up to move things about by “translating” thoughts about the objects moving, or about a variety of motor functions, into specific commands that end up causing entirely odd things to go on with the robot that is receiving those commands.
This is so f-ing cool. Too bad it probably won’t be developed in time for Stephen Hawking to use it.