Thu Apr 22, 6:37 am ET

TOKYO (AFP) – Japan plans to develop "mind-reading" robots and consumer electronics that can be controlled by thought alone and hopes to market them within a decade, the Nikkei daily reported Thursday.

The sci-fi like devices would employ so-called brain-machine interface technology, which analyses users' brain waves and brain blood-flow patterns detected through sensor-mounted headsets.

The envisaged devices would include television sets that can be operated without lifting a finger and mobile phones that send text messages composed purely through thought, the business daily said.

The initiative, to be launched this fiscal year, is a partnership between the government and the private sector, the report said, citing unnamed communications ministry sources.

Other applications could include a car navigation system that searches for restaurants when the driver thinks of having a meal, and air-conditioners that adjust the temperature when people in the room feel too warm or cold.

They could also include robots that know when an elderly or physically disabled person needs help carrying a heavy load, the Nikkei said.

The project would likely include corporate giants including Toyota, Honda and Hitachi as well as the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Osaka University and the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International, the report said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100422/tc_afp/japansciencetechnologyrobots




-whooha, knew this was coming, is it here, there, how you feel, is it for you?

Japan eyes 'mind-reading' devices, robots 'by 2020'

Interesting. But how is the detection device going to be able to segregate individual thoughts? It'd have to be extraordinarily sensitive, and be able to tap into signals coming from individual neurons or groups of neurons... and then it'd have to encode the signal into something meaningful (because neurons themselves are digital - on or off).

</nerd in me> xD

Also, this article made me think of something mildly related. In my university research year (2008) I worked with a supervisor who had a crazy and somewhat evil idea. xD There's an area of the brain called the medial forebrain bundle. This area is part of one of the reward/pleasure pathways of the brain (the mesolimbic pathway). For example, if you show a mouse or a rat something nice (food, a fertile mate) this bit of the brain lights up and goes crazy. My supervisor's idea was this: you attach an electrode stimulator directly onto the medial forebrain bundle. You have a switch outside the animal. So whenever you press the switch, the medial forebrain bundle is stimulated, and the animal gets happy. So if you press the switch when the animal does certain things or goes to certain places within the test area, the animal will begin to do those things or go to those places a lot more, because it has learned that it will get rewarded if it does. In essence, then, by making the animal go only where you want it to, you've basically controlled the animal via a brain implant device. xD The ethical implications are endless, but the idea is kinda cool, eh. xD

Kind of like the suggestive therapy from A Clockwork Orange?

Yeah. From memory though, his was the opposite effect - I think they shocked him while he watched the footage. Same principle though.

that's pretty nifty. dunno about thought texting though. i might end up thinking something i shouldn't to the wrong person ;D

lols!