Weapons of perception: neuroscience and mind-controlled weapons…

Advances in neuroscience offer the military the potential of mind-controlled weapons and performance enhancement. Are mind-controlled weapons and extra-sensory enhanced warfare techniques mere science fiction? Recent developments in neuroscience suggest not, with a new Royal Society report claiming that research in areas such as neuropharmacology, functional neuroimaging and neural interface systems could create a new breed of super soldier and diminish enemy ability.

Neuroscience is one of the most rapidly advancing fields in medicine, with highly-detailed imaging offering new insights into the way the brain works and direct brain interfaces enabling weapons to be targeted and fired with just a thought. The technology is not speculative – just last week scientists unveiled an implant called BrainGate that enabled a woman who had lost the use of her limbs after a devastating stroke to control a robot arm using thought processes alone.

Neuroscience, conflict and security.

The new report, “Neuroscience, Conflict and Security”, formed part of a series that examined the impact of neuroscience on society, dealing specifically with the potential application of advances in neuroscience to the armed forces and security personnel.

It was chaired by Prof Rod Flower FRS, professor of biochemical pharmacology at the William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London, and brought together international experts to discuss new developments in the field and the laws and ethics that apply to their application in a military and civil context. According to Flower, it was the first time the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) had worked with academia in neuroscience.

“A key advance in neuroscience has been improvements in real-time neuro-imaging, which can indicate in great detail which parts of the brain ‘light up’ when undertaking certain activities.”

“The people we were in contact with there were the horizon scanning team whose job it is to look out for potential new applications of research,” Flower said. “We relied on what was publicly available, and while the US is extremely open about what its military does, the UK is not so open, and countries like Russia and China are a complete cipher.”

A key advance in neuroscience has been improvements in real-time neuro-imaging, which can indicate in great detail which parts of the brain “light up” when undertaking certain activities. One of its applications could be to screen potential recruits for a specific role, for example to see if they are temperamentally suited to be a commander, pilot or diver.

“At the moment it’s very much a case of taking people on and subjecting them to high-stress exercises and choosing the ones who make it,” says Flower. “If they could be subjected to imaging during assessment you could identify who has good risk-taking behaviour, strategy and planning ability, or 3D analytical skills.”

Brain scanning for target identification

Brain scanning could also speed up and improve target recognition or identify changes in surveillance satellite images by recognising subconscious objective identification rather than an operator having to process and actively react.

“It has been discovered that when you show the brain different images, it spots the differences between them even though they may not reach conscious awareness,” says Flower. “Wearing a helmet like a hairnet can pick up a spike in brain activity which you can correlate to differences identified between two images, even if they were flashed up too quickly to process consciously.”

That potentially has the ability not only to speed up the process of target selection but also improve accuracy. It could also reduce problems associated with fatigue, which is a big issue facing people whose job involves scanning images for a long time, especially in the dark, such as surveillance UAV operators.

Mind controlled weapons and aircrafts

Solutions for situational awareness – battlefield innovations

Situational awareness solutions allow soldiers to make effective use of varied information in a battlefield context.

Technologies such as the BrainGate implant have already shown that machinery can be controlled with the mind alone, and games manufacturers have already brought out low-cost helmet controllers than enable wearers to play by mind power alone. The obvious application for the military is mind-controlled weaponry and remotely-piloted aircraft, which could make operation and reactions far faster.

“If you couple that with your subconscious mind being much faster at dealing with information you can see a situation sometime in the future where you’re not thinking about flying the aircraft, but your subconscious is doing it without interfering in any way,” says Flower. “You would probably have a much better appreciation of an incoming threat and fire off a couple of missiles without having to consciously think.”

Drugs to stimulate troops and disable enemies

The report also examines evidence that certain drugs can improve the performance of personnel performing certain military tasks. Among these, drugs developed to relieve the symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children, such as Ritalin, have shown great promise on unaffected adults who want to focus their attention on a specific task.

“It could help when flying a long mission where you may become fatigued and your attention begins to drift off,” says Flower. “It could also help you focus when you have a lot of information to process, like being a fighter pilot in a particularly tense situation when you’re trying to get a missile lock on a target while the aircraft and radio are bombarding you with information and you have to communicate back.”

Another approach that could improve the way the brain works is known as trans-cranial electrical stimulation where electrodes attached to a 9V battery are clamped to the head. Control studies showed it can improve the rate at which things are learnt, and possibly result in better memory formation.

“One controversial subject the report touches on is that of neuropsychology-inspired chemical weapons.”

One controversial subject the report touches on is that of neuropsychology-inspired chemical weapons, discussing the fact that although the international Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) bans the use of chemical weapons on the battlefield, they are allowed for civil law-enforcement purposes.

“One of the problems is as far as anyone in our field can find, it’s not possible to find a totally safe drug that you could use,” says Flower, citing the example of the Moscow theatre siege in which 150 civilians died alongside their Chechen rebel captors.

“It’s partly because everyone’s unique and responds in different ways. If you start spraying it around you may affect children, women, men, pregnant women, old men, people taking other drugs, and people with heart disease. It won’t just be the 70kg healthy young men on which these drugs are tested.”

Flower is also keen to bust some myths about some chemicals that were reportedly tested for their effects on enemy troops.

“Oxytocin is a hormone that’s produced in pregnancy that produces a feeling of emotional closeness and trust,” says Flower. “There was a lot of talk that you may be able to use this as an interrogation tool to make your captive trust you and tell you all his secrets. But as far as we can tell that’s all nonsense.”

The ethics of neural war

Like automated weaponry and battlefield robotics, however, these new techniques could require an overhaul of ethical guidelines, especially with regards to civilian casualties. Currently the last person who gave the order to fire is responsible, but if it came from the operator’s subconscious, the line becomes blurred.

With advances in neuroscience holding such great potential for military applications, Flower would like to see the MoD to work closer with academia. One approach would be to have a two-way intern exchange between the MoD and academia.

“It’s not rocket science, the research is all out there, and most of it gets published,” says Flower. “It’s just a question of them being aware of it and able to pick up the ideas and exploit them before they read about it in Nature.”

ADVISORS TO USA AND WORLD CACH

We are honored to have American heroes William Binney and J. Kirk Wiebe as advisors to the board of directors of WORLD CACH (Coalition Against Covert Harassment). Mr. Binney and Mr. Wiebe worked at the NSA for over 30 years. William Binney is the former NSA crypto-mathematician and J. Kirk Wiebe is a former NSA senior analyst.

Both worked in Signals Intelligence (specifically SARC – Signals Intelligence Automation Research Center): Mr. Wiebe, as a senior analyst and recipient of the Meritous Civilian Service Award and Mr. Binney as Technical Director of the World Geopolitical & Military Analysis Reporting Group.

The first World Covert Harassment Conference took place in the autumn of 2014 and William Binney was a featured speaker, explaining NSA’s system of logging of all communication systems data and the method of analysis. They both work tirelessly at bringing to light the violation of protections of personal freedoms that have occurred both in the United States and the European Union.
At the NSA, Binney’s team, including Wiebe, developed a program, THIN THREAD, which was ready in January 2001, prior to the 9-11 attack. However, General Hayden ignored THIN THREAD and chose an undeveloped program called TRAILBLAZER. TRAILBLAZER was only on paper and cost billions whereas THIN THREAD was only a $3 million price tag.

TRAILBLAZER’s larger budget would benefit private contractors where THIN THREAD was strictly internal. In 2000, Binney and Wiebe went to Congress to blow the whistle on mismanagement and waste of funds in connection to Trailblazer. General Hayden was furious and sent out a memo accusing the whistleblowers of betraying the agency and stating “…I cannot tolerate them.”
In response to 9-11, President Bush began a secretive domestic surveillance program which included “STELLAR WIND”, based on Binney’s THIN THREAD, but with US Citizens’ protection removed, thus violating the Constitution.

Both Binney & Wiebe and others (Ed Loomis, Diane Rourke, and Thomas Drake) had their homes raided by the FBI and personal possessions seized. No charges were ever filed and in early 2010 the Department of Justice issued letters of immunity to our honorable advisors.  They are the subject of a recently released documentary, A GOOD AMERICAN.

Edward Snowden on the most shocking way the NSA spies on people 2014

The best part from the NBC special “In the Mind of Edward Snowden”. Aired May 2014. He is referring to “Remote neural monitoring” (using technology to intercept the Scalar waves emanating from a person’s head, to listen to their thoughts and see what they see. Also, talking inside a person’s head using a method called “voice to skull” or synthetic telepathy.

Synopsis to all journalist’s around the world about BRAIN-CONTROL

Synopsis to all journalist’s around the world…

Within the last decade 10.000’s of people have become unwitting and non consenting lab rats in their own home, and the number of victims is growing exponentially in these years. Their life has been completely destroyed, and they are tortured on a daily basis.
The scale of these crimes and world wide spread and complete media blackout, suggest that these are not a few rouge scientist at private labs. But States and in particular their intelligence services controlling and guarding this research. In the US the CIA, NSA, FBI and DOD, have funded many neurological research projects. During the cold war hundreds of thousand of civilian citizen became unwitting test subjects of a variety of military and intelligence research project’  testing and of course the infamous MKULTRA Mind Control program run by the CIA. The where allegedly shut down in the mid 70’s, but many intelligence and military sources claim the opposite. The selection of test subject, the total media cover up and the deliberate discrediting of these test subject voicing their complaint, by induced mental health symptoms is just a repetition of history and gives a clear indication of the controlling people behind these extreme human right violations. Much of the system is build around “plausible dependability”.

Neuroscience has for the last decade been the fastest growing research field in the world, and its predominantly financed by the military and the intelligence services around the world.
It is no secret that we are entering what scientist refer to as the Neuro-Society, and there is already extensive research going on in as diverse fields as Health sector, neuro marketing, lie detection, personality profiling for job applicants, behavior modification, The gaming industry, remote control (automobile industry), communications sector (mobile industry).Computer interaction (all majorplayers), Artificial intelligence and neuro computing, etc.
The US military has close collaboration and joint venture collaboration with major companies in all these sectors. Just to mention one example would be DARPA’s AugCog (Augmented Cognition) program for intelligence and military use.

By: Magnus Olsson

E-Mail: magelison@gmail.com

New Microchip Can Mimic How a Human Brain Thinks

Susanne Posel Occupy Corporatism August 1, 2013

Researchers from the University of Zurich, have created neuromorphic chips that can mimic the way a human brain will process information in real-time.

With the assistance of an artificial sensory processing system, these chips are able to display cognitive abilities.

Giacomo Indiveri, professor at the Institute of Neuroinformatics (INI), of the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, explained that the goal of the team was to “emulate the properties of biological neurons and synapses directly on microchips.”

With the creation of artificial neuromorphic neurons that can perform specified tasks, the researchers are able to further advancement toward a complex sensorimotor that can complete tasks in real-time.

Shockingly, behavior can be replicated by input formulated in a finite-state machine that could be transferred into neuromorphic hardware.

Indiveri stated: “The network connectivity patterns closely resemble structures that are also found in mammalian brains.”

Researchers at the University of Berkley have suggested implanting mind-reading “neural dust” into human brains to facilitate connectivity of man to machine.

If this dust were sprinkled onto a human brain, it could form an “implantable neural interface system that remains viable for a lifetime.”

This dust would consist of particles no more than 100 micrometers across that would be millions of sensors capable of measuring electrical activity in neutrons within the brain.

According to the paper, these sensors could be attached to the “tips of fine wire arrays” that could be inserted directly into brain tissue.

This would enable a human brain – machine interface and create a mechanical “telepathy”.

Another way scientists are endeavoring to connect man to machine is through the use of newly developed stretchy conductive material that could be attached to electrode implants to the brain or pacemakers.

This gold-crafted nanoparticle invention is an elastic polymer that can be stretched to four times its original length.

Nicholas Kotov, chemical engineer at the University of Michigan (UoM) explains that “it looks like elastic gold. But we can stretch it just like a rubber band. And when you release the stress, they pretty much come back to their original position.”

Kotov claims that this invention “can alleviate a lot of diseases-for instance, severe depression, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. They can serve as a part of artificial limbs and other prosthetic devices controlled by brain.”

The Royal Society, in conjunction with Academy of Medical Sciences, British Academy and Royal Academy of Engineering came together this month to discuss the potentials, opportunities and challenges of the melding of man with machine (i.e. transhumanism) under the guise of augmentation technologies.

At the Human Enhancement and the Future of Work conference, and further expanded upon in their published report, explains how science and ethics are coming into conflict as technology promises to replace the faulty human body with an eternal, mechanical replacement.

These transhumanists define human enhancement as everything that “encompasses a range of approaches that may be used to improve aspects of human function (e.g. memory, hearing, mobility). This may either be for the purpose of restoring an impaired function to previous or average levels, or to raise function to a level considered to be ‘beyond the norm’ for humans.” Many transhumanist groups can be found throughout the world, such as the UK Transhumanist Association who believes that scientific research must be applied to answer questions of the human condition and bring substantial benefit to society. The Oxford Transhumanists promote “radical life extension, artificial intelligence, cognitive enhancement, existential risks and mind – uploading.”

The Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford endeavors to answer the “big – picture questions about humanity and its prospects.”

These transhumanists favor the Singularity Summit, an annual extension of the Singularity Institute wherein robotics, artificial intelligence, brain – computer interfacing and [various] emerging technologies” into genetics and regenerative medicine are examined under the perspective of transhumanism.

The transhumanists at the 2045 Program assert that humanity “is in need of a new evolutionary strategy” consisting of a balance between the complexity of technological advances and the acceleration of informational processes to expand the “limited, primitive human” into a “highly self-organized” and technologically “higher intelligence”.

Technology can organize society and integrate unification of a super collective consciousness – a superbeing.

By doing away with individuality, the conclusion is the elimination of:

• Lack of consumer provisions • Aging, illness and death • Crime and conflicts • Natural disasters and catastrophes

The concept of the neo-human and neo-humanity is the replacement for a post-industrial capitalist and consumer-based society where a new form of civilization will emerge.

Original: http://gizmodo.com/a-new-kind-of-microchip-mimics-the-human-brain-in-real-872326444

Superhuman Intelligence, THE TRANSHUMANISM PANDEMIC

THE TRANSHUMANISM PANDEMIC

“Within 30 years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended.” – Vernor Vinge, Technological Singularity, 1983

Within these pages we take an informative and in-depth look into the construct of the extensive Transhumanism matrix in an edge-of-the-seat balance between an unfolding reality that could equally rival any Hollywood sci-fi, and the factual entanglement that we collectively explore as human souls.

A layered awakening is promised the reader with this unprecedented collection of data that is sure to blow open the boundaries of any mind. The tearing apart of this deeply infesting pandemic will be vivisectioned chapter by chapter, casting a line through the story of humanity to reach an unexpected hidden plan that will rewrite the end-game for many.

Through the timely arrival of this book, a (perhaps prophetic) early-warning red alert, we can finally resolve to prepare and avoid the moment by moment staggering impacts of those who seek our organic annihilation.

Link: http://transhumanismpandemic.wordpress.com/

BRAIN Initiative Challenges Researchers to Unlock Mysteries of Human Mind

Today at the White House, President Obama unveiled the “BRAIN” Initiative—a bold new research effort to revolutionize our understanding of the human mind and uncover new ways to treat, prevent, and cure brain disorders like Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, autism, epilepsy, and traumatic brain injury.

The BRAIN Initiative — short for Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies — builds on the President’s State of the Union call for historic investments in research and development to fuel the innovation, job creation, and economic growth that together create a thriving middle class.

The Initiative promises to accelerate the invention of new technologies that will help researchers produce real-time pictures of complex neural circuits and visualize the rapid-fire interactions of cells that occur at the speed of thought. Such cutting-edge capabilities, applied to both simple and complex systems, will open new doors to understanding how brain function is linked to human behavior and learning, and the mechanisms of brain disease.

President Barack Obama is introduced by Dr. Francis Collins, Director, National Institutes of Health, at the BRAIN Initiative event in the East Room of the White House, April 2, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

In his remarks this morning, the President highlighted the BRAIN Initiative as one of the Administration’s “Grand Challenges” – ambitious but achievable goals that require advances in science and technology to accomplish. The President called on companies, research universities, foundations, and philanthropies to join with him in identifying and pursuing additional Grand Challenges of the 21st century—challenges that can create the jobs and industries of the future while improving lives.

In addition to fueling invaluable advances that improve lives, the pursuit of Grand Challenges can create the jobs and industries of the future.

That’s what happened when the Nation took on the Grand Challenge of the Human Genome Project. As a result of that daunting but focused endeavor, the cost of sequencing a single human genome has declined from $100 million to $7,000, opening the door to personalized medicine.

Like sequencing the human genome, President Obama’s BRAIN Initiative provides an opportunity to rally innovative capacities in every corner of the Nation and leverage the diverse skills, tools, and resources from a variety of sectors to have a lasting positive impact on lives, the economy, and our national security.

That’s why we’re so excited that critical partners from within and outside government are already stepping up to the President’s BRAIN Initiative Grand Challenge.

The BRAIN Initiative is launching with approximately $100 million in funding for research supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the President’s Fiscal Year 2014 budget.

Foundations and private research institutions are also investing in the neuroscience that will advance the BRAIN Initiative.  The Allen Institute for Brain Science, for example, will spend at least $60 million annually to support projects related to this initiative.  The Kavli Foundation plans to support BRAIN Initiative-related activities with approximately $4 million dollars per year over the next ten years.  The Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies will also dedicate research funding for projects that support the BRAIN Initiative.

This is just the beginning. We hope many more foundations, Federal agencies, philanthropists, non-profits, companies, and others will step up to the President’s call to action.

Learn more about the BRAIN Initiative here and here.

White House:  View the full-size infographic

Remote Neural Monitoring : A Technology Used For Controlling the Human Brain

HAVE you ever thought about something you never shared with anyone, and have been horror-struck at the mere thought of someone coming to know about your little secret? If you have, then you probably have all the more reason to be paranoid now thanks to new and improved security systems being developed around the world to deal with terrorism that inadvertently end up impinging on one’s privacy.

Some of the countries involved in such programmes include USA, UK, Spain, Sweden, Germany and France. Recently, the National Security Agency (NSA) of the US has developed a very efficient method of controlling the human brain. This technology is called Remote Neural Monitoring (RNM) and is expected to revolutionise crime detection and investigation.

What is it?

RNM works remotely to control the brain in order to read and detect any criminal thought taking place inside the mind of a possible perpetrator. Research studies have shown that the human brain thinks at a rate of about 5000 bits per second and does not have the capacity to compete with supercomputers performing via satellites, implants and biotelemetry. The human brain has a distinctive set of bioelectric resonance system. For the RNM system, supercomputers are being used and, thus, with its help, supercomputers can send messages through an implanted person’s nervous system in order to influence their performance in a desired way.

RNM has been developed after about 50 years of neuro-electromagnetic involuntary human experimentations. According to many scientists, within a few years it is expected that DNA microchips will be implanted in the human brain which would make it inherently controllable. With RNM, it will be possible to read and control a person’s emotional thought processes along with the subconscious and dreams. At present, around the world, supercomputers are monitoring millions of people simultaneously with the speed of 20 billion bits per second especially in countries like USA, Japan, Israel and many European countries.

RNM has a set of certain programs functioning at different levels, like the signals intelligence system which uses electromagnetic frequencies (EMF), to stimulate the brain for RNM and the electronic brain link (EBL). The EMF Brain Stimulation system has been designed as radiation intelligence which means receiving information from inadvertently originated electromagnetic waves in the environment. However, it is not related to radioactivity or nuclear detonation. The recording machines in the signals intelligence system have electronic equipment that investigate electrical activity in humans from a distance. This computer-generated brain mapping can constantly monitor all electrical activities in the brain. The recording aid system decodes individual brain maps for security purposes.

What does it do?

For purposes of electronic evaluation, electrical activity in the speech centre of the brain can be translated in to the subject’s verbal thoughts. RNM can send encoded signals to the auditory cortex of the brain directly bypassing the ear. This encoding helps in detecting audio communication. It can also perform electrical mapping of the brain’s activity from the visual centre of the brain, which it does by bypassing the eyes and optic nerves, thus projecting images from the subject’s brain onto a video monitor. With this visual and audio memory, both can be visualised and analysed. This system can, remotely and non-invasively, detect information by digitally decoding the evoked potentials in 30-50Hz, 5 millwatt electromagnetic emissions from the brain. The nerves produce a shifting electrical pattern with a shifting magnetic flux which then puts on a constant amount of electromagnetic waves. There are spikes and patterns which are called evoked potentials in the electromagnetic emission from the brain. The interesting part about this is that the entire exercise is carried out without any physical contact with the subject.

The EMF emissions from the brain can be decoded into current thoughts, images and sounds in the subject’s brain. It sends complicated codes and electromagnetic pulse signals to activate evoked potentials inside the brain, thus generating sounds and visual images in the neural circuits. With its speech, auditory and visual communication systems, RNM allows for a complete audio-visual brain to brain link or a brain-to-computer link.

Of course, the mechanism needs to decode the resonance frequency of each specific site to modulate the insertion of information in that specific location of the brain. RNM can also detect hearing via electromagnetic microwaves, and it also features the transmission of specific commands into the subconscious, producing visual disturbances, visual hallucinations and injection of words and numbers in to the brain through electromagnetic radiation waves. Also, it manipulates emotions and thoughts and reads thoughts remotely, causes pain to any nerve of the body, allows for remote manipulation of behaviour, controls sleep patterns through which control over communication is made easy. This can be used for crime investigation and security management.

Concerns

With all the given benefits of RNM for tracking the illicit and treacherous activities, there are many concerns and risks being pointed out by human rights activists and other scientists. The agencies of human rights around the world have criticised RNM as a violation of basic human rights because it violates privacy and the dignity of thoughts and activities of life. Several countries have protested against it and refer to it as an attack on their human and civil rights. The scientists protesting against the use of RNM believe that people who have been implanted involuntarily become biological robots and guinea pigs for RNM activities in the guise of security. This is an important biological concern related to microchip implantation, which is a hidden technology using microwave radiations for the control of the mind.

Scientists believe that like leukemia and the cancerous risks posed by mobile phones which also emit microwaves, RNM can also pose similar threats to a subject’s overall health as the heating effect of tissues with the speed of light is a known effect of high powered microwave and electromagnetic pulse weapons.

Thus, RNM remains a controversial technology which is being used in many countries for security maintenance and surveillance.

By: Magnus Olsson

Guardian Angels for a Smarter Life

 

Project Acronym:GUARDIAN ANGELS

Project status:Completed

Coordinator

Organization name:ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE
Administrative contact	Address
Name:Mihai Adrian IONESCU (Professor)	-STATION 11 1015 LAUSANNE SCHWEIZ/SUISSE/SVIZZERARegion:RÉGION LÉMANIQUE Vaud
Tel:+41-216933978
Fax:+41-216933640
E-mail:Contact
URL:	Organization Type:

Description

Objective: Guardian Angels (GA) are future zero-power, intelligent, autonomous systems-of-systems featuring sensing, computation, and communication beyond human aptitudes. GA will assist humans from their infancy to old age in complex life situations and environments. Zero-power reflects system-of-systems ability to scavenge energy in dynamic environments by disruptive harvesting techniques. The project prepares zero-power technologies based on future energy-efficient technologies, heterogeneous design, and disruptive energy scavengers.

 

Three zero-power generations of GAs are foreseen:

– Physical Guardian Angels are zero-power, on-body networks or implantable devices that monitor vital health signals and take appropriate actions to preserve human health.
– Environmental Guardian Angels extend monitoring to dynamic environments, using disruptive scavengers, personalized data communication, and first “thinking” algorithms. They are personal assistants that protect their wearers from environment dangers.
– Emotional Guardian Angels are intelligent personal companions with disruptive zero-power, manmachine interfaces deployed at large scale. They sense and communicate using non-verbal languages playing an important role in health, education, and security worldwide.

This project addresses the following scientific challenges for energy-efficient visionary Guardian Angel autonomous systems: (i) energy-efficient computing (down to E=10-100kT), (ii) and communication (approaching the limit of 1pJ/bit), (iii) low-power sensing, (iv) disruptive scavenging (bio-inspired, thermoelectric, etc, targeting energy densities of tens of mW/cm2), and (v) zero-power man-machine interfaces. A selection of emerging technologies based on energy efficiency is proposed. We will also develop design tools that integrate electrical, mechanical, optical, thermal, and chemical simulation tools over length and time scales currently achievable.

Link:  http://cordis.europa.eu/search/index.cfm?fuseaction=proj.document&PJ_RCN=12056151

The future of brain-computer interfaces

The future of brain-computer interfaces revealed

In Depth We could soon be controlling our tech with thoughts alone

By Jamie Carter October 2nd

 

Emotiv Systems’ EPOC headset.

Related stories

• The future of 3D internet and computer interfaces
• Apple granted patent for portable iTunes user interface
• Huawei Emotion for Android set to take on Sense and TouchWiz

You may already be having basic conversations with your smartphone, desktop PC, games console, TV and, soon, your car, but such voice recognition is – in the scientific community, at least – firmly in a folder market ‘dumb’ technology.

New ways of controlling consumer electronics goods with both basic voice and gestures are suddenly common, but we could soon be operating computers not by barking out instructions or waving, but purely by thinking.

Research into the long researched brain-computer interface (BCI) – also known as the ‘mind-machine’ interface – is becoming so advanced that it’s set to create a whole new symbiotic relationship between man and machine.

It could even lead to a situation where speech is rendered useless, and people wirelessly communicate through universal translator chips. No more complaining about loud music in nightclubs, then.

The BCI goes way further than simple speech-to-text technology like Nuance’s Dragon Dictation

 

Forget about the wireless revolution – this revolutionary tech demands cables. “A brain-computer interface encompasses any form of controlling a computer via a direct electrical connection to the human body,” says Peter Cochrane, ex-CTO of BT and now an independent analyst.

That connection can be any form of nerve signal or impulse accessed from the surface of the human body, including head and limbs, or muscle impulses picked up by electrodes on the arm, hand, face or forehead generated by physical movement.

Away from actually moving to establish a link between a person and computer, a BCI can use either an MRI scanner or a direct electrical connection to the human brain.

The movie Avatar popularised the idea of a human controller ‘binding’ with an external body

 Mind control

If you’re already thinking about mind control, you’re not far wrong. Even the movie Avatar, where humans remotely piloted a genetically engineered alien being, is closer than you might think.

Attempting to fill the gap between automatic vacuum cleaners and true sentient machines, the burgeoning robotics industry has come up with a product that acts like a puppet; the prototype TELESAR V allows a human operator to ‘bind’ with it, see what it sees, and replicate the exact movements of a human hand inside a sensor-filled glove.

Described as a ‘surrogate anthropomorphic robot’ and hailing from Japan (the Japanese Science And Technology Agency, Keio University and Tokyo University, to be precise), the human user also gets feedback on what the robot hand is experiencing, both in terms of touch and temperature.

Ideal for remotely handling toxic substances, explosives or investigating nuclear accidents such as Fukushima, the uses for this kind of technology appear endless.

Perhaps we’ll see robots like TELESAR V perform complex surgery where a rock-steady hand is required, work on the Moon, or in search and rescue operations. 

Express yourself

And yet the brain-computer interface offers so much for paralysed patients, such as locked-in syndrome sufferers and right-to-die campaigner Tony Nicklinson, who passed away in August. Nicklinson operated a computer using eye movements to communicate, though a BCI needs no such voluntary movements of muscles – they work using thoughts alone.

Clare Carmichael, a research analyst at e-accessibility charity AbilityNet, is working on a BCI prototype – called BrainAble – which has been developed to assist people with extreme disabilities and locked-in syndrome.

“A BCI is a system that enables interaction with a computer based on changing electrical signals that occur in the brain,” Carmichael tells us. “The signals can be taken invasively or non-invasively either from inside the brain or from the scalp. Non-invasive BCI takes signals that are present at micro-volt levels on the scalp and then amplifies them using an EEG. These signals are then digitised so that they can be used by the computer.”

Thinking strategies

During testing with disabled participants in Barcelona and in Liverpool participants use ‘thinking strategies’ to produce specific electrical activity from which data is extracted for use by the BCI.

“So far people have been able to communicate through a speller, perform binary tasks such as turning on and off a light and a TV, changing the channel and adjusting the volume,” says Carmichael. “Participants have been able to navigate a robot and control a camera and to enter a virtual reality that enables them to meet and talk to other people using BrainAble.”

“It can potentially enable people with locked in syndrome to communicate and to continue to be creative.”

The BCI goes way beyond voice and gesture control, as seen on Xbox 360’s Kinect

 

Brain painting

BCI products are already on sale. Emotiv Systems sells its EPOC neuro-headset to gamers that read electrical signals in the wearer’s brain to operate specific games.

Meanwhile, Austrian medical and electrical engineering company g.tec, which sells the P300 speller, the intendiX, is also working with disabled people on brain painting.

Such tech is, for now, concentrating on those it can help most, but the research will eventually trickle into everyday use. “The BCI has tremendous potential as a technology and is already used by gamers and in extreme incident management,” says Carmichael. “Ultimately it’s possible to think of a world where it offers people additional bandwidth. “I like the idea of an as yet unrealised future world where I can wirelessly communicate through my universal translator chip …”

Cloudy days

If you like the sound of that, it does come with a word of warning. “BCIs will fit into the Internet of Things by including chips and implants in people and animals – everything will be connected by default,” says Cochrane, who thinks the BCI and the Internet of Things go hand-in-hand.

“If your brain and nervous system get connected onto the net then they are automatically a part of it – in effect, you become your own cloud.” So next time you think you’re spending too much time online, just remember – this is just the beginning.