Robot Controlled By Brainwave Commands

Scientists in the University of Washington Laboratory for Neural Systems have demonstrated an interface between a person and robot that registers commands from the human's thought patterns alone.

The semi-autonomous robot works as a team with the human operator. The person wears a skull cap covered with 32 electrodes that pick up the brainwave patterns and send them to a computer.
In the demonstrated experiment, the robot found two blocks while the human operator watched the action on a computer screen through the robots eyes. The operator then thought about which block to choose. The robot picks up the correct block 94 percent of the time.

Says leader of the project, Rajesh Rao, "This is really a proof-of-concept demonstration. It suggests that one day we might be able to use semi-autonomous robots for such jobs as helping disabled people or performing routine tasks in a person's home." For example, you think, "I might like a beer," and your robot servant walks to the store, buys it and brings it to you.

Check out the movie here.

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