Brain Controlled Virtual World for the Disabled

Galactic_grub writes "New Scientist Tech has a story about a virtual world that paralyzed patients can explore using their thoughts. The set-up connects a Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) to virtual reality so that a person can 'walk' through it, simply by thinking of moving their legs or their left or right hand. Electrodes are attached to their scalp and electroencephalogram (EEG) readings are used to navigate, or control an avatar. The story includes a video of the experiment."

That's great, when is it available in stores?

Yes, commercialize the research please..

We've been hearing about this technology for years now.

Get the invention out of the lab and into the hands of people who need it.

There's disable people out there living terribly poor quality lives.. they could be pla

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There's disable people out there living terribly poor quality lives.. they could be playing WoW.

Cool, then they can die of starvation without even noticing! Dr. Kevorkian, is that you?

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There's disable people out there living terribly poor quality lives.. they could be playing WoW.

Charles Dickens called. He wants Scrooge's misanthropy back.

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And not just for the disabled.. although i would pay and arm and a leg for it, i'd rather not have to

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Yes, that was my 1st thought also. The diabled could be allowed the pleasure of MMO's. Kinda a Cyberpunk Braindance scenario.

Lets get real

My wife spent a while caring for paraplegics and helping them to adjust. Most of these were young males hurt in mining accidents. Being able to have fantasies about walking is probably low on their agenda and probably serves little useful purpose. Being able to have realistic sex play is probably far more desirable and beneficial to the their health and wellbeing.

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Being able to have realistic sex play is probably far more desirable and beneficial to the their health and wellbeing.

You're probably right. When I was a fledgling nerd who couldn't get laid, I still cybersex0red, because it was better than nothing.

On th

Pretty Cool

That technology looks like it would be a new step towards virtual reality, not just physical therapy to me.

Imagine if someone made a virtual reality sims off that kind of a game engine? People would really starve themselves.

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This is being used to advance the technology of Mind Control, not to make a VR video game for paraplegics.

In this way, the system can be trained to identify the distinctive patterns of neuronal activity produced when they imagine walking forwards, or think about moving either their left or right arm.

The technology might be used to help people who have experienced a stroke recover greater control over their movements, suggests Christoph Guger, of Guger Technology in Graz, who helped develop the EEG part of the experimental set-up.

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Virtual reality is cool and everything, but legalizing euthanasia is far more important. I know I'd rather be six feet under than lay in a bed for the next 50-70 years. That's torture, with or without virtual reality.

Re:Lets get real

"I know I'd rather be six feet under than lay in a bed for the next 50-70 years."

I think that's the whole point of this tech. To give some sort of social life to those who are both immobile and without the real life support network to have a fufilling life inspite of their physical limitations. And before you knock this "social life" too much, consider how many people spend the majority of their time in WoW or EVE chatting or helping friends, completely by their own choice. I could think of nothing better for establishing a good game community than to adapt it to a demographic that would likely use the game as a primary means of social interaction. And if I only ever know them as the high level character who helped me out when I was a newbie and who is quick on the chat lines with a joke or a helpful suggestion, maybe that that would be just fine with someone who is unable to be helpful or chatty IRL.

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And before you knock this "social life" too much, consider how many people spend the majority of their time in WoW or EVE chatting or helping friends, completely by their own choice.

I hope you realize how absurd it is to compare WoW with laying in bed for

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I hope you realize how absurd it is to compare WoW with laying in bed for the rest of your life, unable to move.

Perhaps one problem is that you don't get the bigger picture. If you can control a character with your mind, you can control a vehicle, say,

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What do I care for your suffering? Pain, even agony, is no
more than information before the senses, data fed to the
computer of the mind. The lesson is simple: you have received
the information, now act on it. Take control of the input and
you shall become mas

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It's funny how so many people who actually are disabled [notdeadyet.org] disagree with you.

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So what? I'm not them. If they are comfortable laying in bed for the rest of their lives, that's their decision. But just because they're okay with it doesn't mean everyone else should be forced to do the same.

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The problem with your statement is that you could be and the probability of occurrence runs higher with people that don't appreciate their limitations. I know a lot of people who have lived with either lifelong disabilities or who have been injured in an a

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It seems like the easy way out.

Please climb down from your ivoty tower and get a grip on reality. Life isn't some video game where you aren't allowed to "cheat" by taking the "easy way out," and this isn't an avenue for your intellectual and moral grandsta

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It should be their choice, yet if euthanasia was legal you would see parents, legal guardians and next of kin attempting to make this choice for others, and more than likely succeeding. This is my biggest problem with legalized murder, even if it starts wi

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Is there any rational reason to think that there would be some horrible slippery slope that would eventually lead to arbitrarily murdering patients without their consent?

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Did I say you did? I'm simply pointing out that you, as far as your post goes, have no frame of reference, and many disabled people(I would go so far as most, given the lack of widespread suicide and the lack of support for PAS in the group) fervently wan

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Deriding the important efforts to benefit those stricken by such problems(and this is more than MMORPGs for quadriplegics; think vehicle control and tele-presence technologies) in favor of simply killing them is short-sighted.

Please point out where I have

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Please point out where I have ever advocated killing anyone.
Are you not aware of the meaning of the term suicide? Assisted suicide is someone actively working to help kill another person.

Yeah, giving people the freedom to chooce is such a horribly sli

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Are you not aware of the meaning of the term suicide? Assisted suicide is someone actively working to help kill another person.

Yes, but that's quite different from what you were talking about. There's a difference between murder and assisted suicide.

In thi

Actually, it makes me wonder

Actually, it makes me wonder. Bear in mind that I'm taking wild guesses here, though.

For a start there was this other piece of research some time ago about how playing games even makes people somewhat forget about pain. As in, the physical pain kind. I don

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Being able to have realistic sex play is probably far more desirable and beneficial to the their health and wellbeing.

I'm pretty sure this could be used for plenty of Hentai Games over at J-List.

*coughs*

Not that I would know anything about that.

Snow Crash

Hmm. This reminds me of Mr. Ng from Snow Crash. Could be interesting.

It's only a matter of time

This thing is going to become the norm before too long. Personally, I'm looking forward to it. Thought controlled interfaces open up countless opportunities for computing.

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This thing is going to become the norm before too long

Before too long compared to what? The lifespan of a human? Not likely, it'll probably be another 5 or 6 years before it gets into the homes of disabled people, much less a normal person. It'll probably be at least a decade before it becomes commonplace in

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Ah, no, I mean within the next forty or fifty years, at most. That's probably within my lifespan, at least, and I tend to think of that as a short time. Compared with your average long-term plan for doing anything in space, in particular.

I'm not sure

This is going to be good for some people, but what happens when these people take of the electrodes and discover they still can't walk. I would think it would make them worse.

However, this is a step in the right direction. If we can read and interpret inst

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Why not use this same data to control an actual robot comparable to Honda's Asimo? Sure, the reliability of it is probably terrible right now, but the machine could be made to filter out random fidgeting signals (similar to what's done with micro-surgical

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Even more simply, this kind of brain-machine interface could be used to control motorized prosthetic hands and arms. As I understand, amputees currently rely on flexing their shoulder muscles, for example, to controlled a motorized hand. More capabilitie

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Yeah. I don't have the link on me at the moment, but DARPA recently announced an impressive new prosthetic arm prototype with plans to build an even beter one. Apparently it's got a two-way connection, with tactile feedback to the nervous system. Great!

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Wtf? "discover they still can't walk"? What the hell are you on? I'm thinking this wouldn't be some sudden revelation to them.

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They already know they can't walk. That's why they discover they still can't walk.

They've been informed that this system will allow them to walk for a little while. They get a glimpse of movement and life and then it's taken away when the computer is tu

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"They already know they can't walk. That's why they discover they still can't walk.

They've been informed that this system will allow them to walk for a little while. They get a glimpse of movement and life and then it's taken away when the computer is turn

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They're physically disabled, not vegetables or morons. They're not rediscovering anything.

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This is going to be good for some people, but what happens when these people take of the electrodes and discover they still can't walk. I would think it would make them worse.

IANAP, but when I play a with a flight simulator for a few hours, the last thin

oh shit

Yeah, this seems all kewl and shit now, but just wait until they get put into these pepperpot things with plungers on the end, we'll be in for it then! "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"

So accomodating

(@ T- 26 seconds)

"How are you? Chew on my milk duds."

Nevertheless, fantastic use of technology. I can't wait to see where they go with this.

Atari Mindlink?

This reminds me of a gaming console that Atari worked on in the mid-1980s called the Atari Mindlink, very similar concept except it used infrared sensors to measure the movement of the muscles in your head.

http://www.atarimuseum.com/videogames/consoles/260 0/mindlink.html [atarimuseum.com]

Games for the disabled.

I definitely agree with one of the previous posters that, I am not sure how much good a virtual world "game" would do for paralyzed individuals. I do think though that it could serve as a novel source of entertainment for them which could lift their spiri

Imagination is Exclusive?

I've got my imagination... don't we all? Makes a pretty good "virtual" world for me when needed.

No... didn't RTFA.

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So you have an imaginary social life too? Oh wait, this is Slashdot...

I think now would be a good time to....

Invest in a holodiction support clinic.

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Yeah, internet gaming/sexual addiction is bad enough, but something like this inside the mass market will take it to a whole new level.

Lawnmower Man Anyone?

Its a bit after 2001, but hey, we could still have a Jobe Smith on our hands. ;) ...my birth cry will be the sound of every phone on this planet ringing in unison! Narean

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You sir, need help [mentalhelp.net].