Posted 09.30.2009 at 5:45 pm
9 Comments
Wireless Brain Transmitter : Reid Harrison, via IEEE Spectrum
A team at the University of Utah has created a brain chip that uses broadband RF to communicate with machines. Without wires to tangle up with each other, the wireless brain implants can cover more of the brain than their wired counterparts, thus providing more function and more control.
The wireless brain implant represents a breakthrough in cooling technology. Beforehand, the electricity needed to power the wireless signal would heat the implants up so much they would fry any neurons they touched. Now, the University of Utah team has managed to keep the implants cool enough to allow the monkey's brain to go Wi-Fi.
The researchers hope that the wider range of movement enabled by brain implants without cumbersome wires will one day allow humans to operate their robotic limbs during physical activities like dance and sports. Or, we could all get the implants and log into the Matrix without that pesky plug in the back of the head.
[via IEEE Spectrum]
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Oh cyberpunk we are almost there.
That... is... awesome!
Cybernetic Ninja Monkeys, here they come!
He who says it cannot be done, should not interrupt the one who is doing it.
ooh... i like the mind control prosthetic limb idea
Weird. I already use my mind to control my limbs.
Monkeys join the Wi-Fi club! You have to admit that's pretty damn cool - controlling arms not attached to your body with your mind. Maybe one day people will just command their robot bodies with their real human minds and then we can all just be lazy and fat.
It'd be interesting to see if they could find a way to use this technology to enable people who suffer from paralysis to move their affected limbs again. Perhaps by merging components of the mechanical limbs with the patient's limbs and using the chip to control it.
Russia closed the port city of Sochi, a key stop of maritime commerce, on September 1, for infrastructure maintenance works to be completed before the winter olympics due in 2014
www.prefabrik.com
How long until Paris Hilton has one of her own? Tiny pigs...that's hot.