Physicians at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO surgically applied a grid of electrodes on the surface of a 14 year old boy’s brain in order to locate the focus of his troubling seizures.
While waiting to observe a seizure in action, the docs tried something new and different. They hooked the electrode matrix to an interface that allowed the boy to move a computer cursor by thought alone. Yes, the process required practice, but once the boy figured it out, he could clear levels of those nasty Atari aliens without moving a finger.
Using electrodes to move computer cursors isn’t new, but this is the first time I’ve seen the process used to allow somebody to play videogames.
6 Comments
cableguy · October 15, 2006 at 12:48 pm
Sheesh, how long before we can have a completely wireless, mind-connected interface with our computers?! Picture coming home and turning on your computer by thought and then checking/responding to emails (once again by thought) while you cook dinner. Too wierd to imagine!!!
StevenBogolub · October 22, 2006 at 12:32 pm
Looks like some day console controllers will be a thing of the past. Maybe Sony can release a helmet that serves as a controller like the steering wheel for racing games.
amycarl · October 25, 2006 at 10:19 am
I believe that this concept is very interesting. It is weird to think that we can control something in our mind without doing anything physically. I am blown away by the ever increasing knowledge of technology. I do not think that this is a horrible thing to do. I think that helping someone find out the source of their seizures is great, but they should not just do this video game thing for fun. Who knows the effects of this in the long run?
PinkShades05 · October 25, 2006 at 10:27 pm
Hmm…so does this have external validity? Just kidding 😉 I love the concept behind it and how interesting it is! However, I wonder what the side-effects are? I can’t imagine this being completely beneficial in the long run, although it would certainly make typing up essays 100x easier if we could just think about the words instead of taking the time to hit the keys!
LeaRoltsch · October 29, 2006 at 3:45 pm
This is really interesting and I saw something like it on primetime, dateline or one of those shows, but in the show I saw they were dealing with blind people. This is really some cool technology that could be very beneficial to people!
jejabe13 · December 4, 2006 at 12:02 pm
Wow, the implications for this type of technology are amazing. if we can get a kid to play video games without lifting a finger, it doesn’t seem like such a stretch to imagine a world where quadriplegics (dare I suggest coma patients) can interact with the world they live in.
Comments are closed.