Mind-Controlled Robots Now a Reality, for Real

It really was only a matter of time before this happened, and we only hope that the technology doesn't work both ways.

After all, it would not be fun for you to put on a cap and direct your robot only for it to suddenly decide to control you back.

Anyway, a team of scientists from Switzerland's Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne made a technology that allowed a quadriplegic man to record his brain signals with a special cap.

Those signals were then transferred to a small wheeled robot that could be moved left and right with just a thought.

Immobile patients in need of seeing areas outside of their hospital beds are seen as the prime beneficiaries.

There are some issues to sort out though, like the fact that the signal will degrade if you get in any way distracted. You also have to “order” the robot to stop if you don't want it to keep doing whatever you told it to.

A home version is expected to be ready in a matter of years.

Posted in: Hardware, News