WindWip
10-14-2006, 05:01 PM
This is pretty cool -
...Well move over science fiction, welcome reality. And we're not talking virtual. A 14-year-old boy from St. Louis, Mo. has played Atari's "Space Invaders" -- a popular computer game from the 1970s -- without touching a joystick, using only brain power.
In Space Invaders players control a roving laser cannon and try to shoot rows of aliens that move back and forth across the screen. The objective is to kill the aliens before they get to the bottom of the screen. Once they land, the game ends. The aliens can also shoot at the cannon, so the player has to try and evade the shots.
"He cleared out the whole Level One basically on brain control," said Eric Leuthardt, a researcher at the School of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis. "He learned almost instantaneously. We then gave him a more challenging version in two-dimensions and he mastered two levels there playing only with his imagination."
Researchers used a technique that takes data from the surface of the brain.
The boy already had grids implanted to monitor his brain for epilepsy He was connected to a computer program that linked the video game to the grids. He was then asked to move his hands, talk, and imagine things. The researchers correlated these movements to the different signals fired by the brain...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-10/14/content_5202638.htm
...Well move over science fiction, welcome reality. And we're not talking virtual. A 14-year-old boy from St. Louis, Mo. has played Atari's "Space Invaders" -- a popular computer game from the 1970s -- without touching a joystick, using only brain power.
In Space Invaders players control a roving laser cannon and try to shoot rows of aliens that move back and forth across the screen. The objective is to kill the aliens before they get to the bottom of the screen. Once they land, the game ends. The aliens can also shoot at the cannon, so the player has to try and evade the shots.
"He cleared out the whole Level One basically on brain control," said Eric Leuthardt, a researcher at the School of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis. "He learned almost instantaneously. We then gave him a more challenging version in two-dimensions and he mastered two levels there playing only with his imagination."
Researchers used a technique that takes data from the surface of the brain.
The boy already had grids implanted to monitor his brain for epilepsy He was connected to a computer program that linked the video game to the grids. He was then asked to move his hands, talk, and imagine things. The researchers correlated these movements to the different signals fired by the brain...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-10/14/content_5202638.htm