A while back, I read a fascinating article in "Wired" magazine. The article was about a patient who had recovered from a coma but was "shut-in". That is to say, he could think consciously, and his involuntary nervous system worked, but he had no voluntary control over his body.
Doctors and scientists developed a way for him to interact through the medium of a computer. They designed a system of electrodes to detect brain waves, connected the electrode output to a self-organizing pattern-recognition network, connected the network to a computer, and asked him to think about specific things. As he did so, they trained the network to do certain things on the computer. Eventually, he reached the point that by thinking about it he could move a cursor around on the computer screen, type words, and fully interact with the computer. Again, it is important to realize he learned to do this by focusing on specific things, which in turn would trigger a response on the computer screen.
At any rate, after many, many months of this, a reporter came to interview him. He "spoke" by typing words on the computer screen. At the end of the interview, the reporter asked him what he was thinking about.
"Nothing," appeared on the screen.
You see, the man's brain had adapted to the point where interfacing through the computer was as natural to him as speaking and moving is to us. It no longer required him to concentrate on moving the cursor or typing, he just did it.
Anyway, to make a long story short (too late?), it seems that similar technology is in the works for a wide range of man-machine interfaces, including prosthetics and implants to provide vision and hearing. You can read about it here:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/700338.asp?0dm=T21CN?pne=msn#BODY
Just thought I'd share a fascinating story with you. Science fiction truly is the inspiration for science.
Doctors and scientists developed a way for him to interact through the medium of a computer. They designed a system of electrodes to detect brain waves, connected the electrode output to a self-organizing pattern-recognition network, connected the network to a computer, and asked him to think about specific things. As he did so, they trained the network to do certain things on the computer. Eventually, he reached the point that by thinking about it he could move a cursor around on the computer screen, type words, and fully interact with the computer. Again, it is important to realize he learned to do this by focusing on specific things, which in turn would trigger a response on the computer screen.
At any rate, after many, many months of this, a reporter came to interview him. He "spoke" by typing words on the computer screen. At the end of the interview, the reporter asked him what he was thinking about.
"Nothing," appeared on the screen.
You see, the man's brain had adapted to the point where interfacing through the computer was as natural to him as speaking and moving is to us. It no longer required him to concentrate on moving the cursor or typing, he just did it.
Anyway, to make a long story short (too late?), it seems that similar technology is in the works for a wide range of man-machine interfaces, including prosthetics and implants to provide vision and hearing. You can read about it here:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/700338.asp?0dm=T21CN?pne=msn#BODY
Just thought I'd share a fascinating story with you. Science fiction truly is the inspiration for science.
