Pegasus Examines Real-life Jedi: Pushing The Limits Of Mind Control

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(Free-Press-Release.com) February 2, 2012 -- Pegasus Examines Real-life Jedi: Pushing The Limits Of Mind Control

The inner workings of the brain can now be read using low cost hardware.

You don't have to be a Jedi to make things move with your mind. Granted, we may not be able to lift a spaceship out of a swamp like Yoda does in The Empire Strikes Back, but it is possible to steer a model car, drive a wheelchair and control a robotic exoskeleton with just your thoughts. Pegasus Client Services is astounded by these findings with the managing Director saying, “It is something out of this world, I never thought that this would have even be possible in my life time”. Some ideas, some technologies may sound like science fiction, but they are fast becoming science fact.

On the operators head is a strange headset that looks like a black plastic squid. Its 14 tendrils, each capped with a moistened electrode, are supposed to detect specific brain signals. In front is a computer screen, displaying an image of a floating cube. As they think about pushing it, the cube responds by drifting into the distance. Admittedly, the system needed a fair bit of pre-training to achieve this single task. But it has, nonetheless, learned to associate a specific thought pattern with a particular movement such as thinking about flexing your right hand to move right and your left to move left. Control signals come from two main sources; electroencephalography (EEG) measurements of brain activity, and readings of nerve impulses as they travel outwards to the muscles.
Already the team has used the system to help a patient with locked-in syndrome, whose healthy, active mind became trapped in a motionless body following a stroke. "We linked the headset to the IBM middleware, and when he pushed the cube on the screen, that behaved like a click of the mouse - so he was able to use the computer," explained IBM's Kevin Brown. Pegasus Client Services responded simply with “Amazing! A disabled person who will be able to interact with people through a computer or a robot is remarkable” continues Pegasus Client Services.

"A disabled patient who can't move can instead navigate such a robot around his house to participate in the social life of the family," explains the team leader, Professor Jose del Millan. "To do that, a helmet detects the intention of some physical movement and translates it into action."
Japanese company Cyberdyne is helping people who cannot walk to regain mobility by dressing them in a full-body robotic suit called Hal.Brain-controlled Cyberdyne's Hal suit allows disabled patients to walk again. Just as some of IBM's readings come from nerve impulses, rather than brain waves, Cyberdyne uses tiny sensors on the limbs to measure the subject's intention to move, even if the physical act is impossible. “A disabled patient who can't move can instead navigate such a robot around his house to participate in the social life of the family”

“Science and technology has come leaps and bounds over the past decade, it’s an exciting time to be alive” says a source from Pegasus Client Services.

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