" Brain chip reads man's thoughts"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4396387.stm

A paralysed man in the US has become the first person to benefit from a brain chip that reads his mind.

Matthew Nagle, 25, was left paralysed from the neck down and confined to a wheelchair after a knife attack in 2001.

The pioneering surgery at New England Sinai Hospital, Massachusetts, last summer means he can now control everyday objects by thought alone.

The brain chip reads his mind and sends the thoughts to a computer to decipher.

Mind over matter

He can think his TV on and off, change channels and alter the volume thanks to the technology and software linked to devices in his home.

Scientists have been working for some time to devise a way to enable paralysed people to control devices with the brain.


My question: How will the bad guys pervert this to their evil aims of controlling the masses??

so I imagine they won't read any further!

How can I get one?

however, I think the chip "reads" not thoughts but the brains electrical activity. Its not simply "Thinking" the TV on, but training yourself to send out the right signals to the chip to turn the TV on. After a while, it would obviously be second nature, but I bet it took months of training for him to have consistant results with the chip.

he doesn't pull a "Carrie" someday. Or anybody around. Otherwise that's pretty neat.

:tinfoilhat:

How will the bad guys pervert this to their evil aims of controlling the masses??

If the technology is just now being publicized, and doing good, the bad guys have probably had it for years to do evil.

Impress me. Make a chip that reads a womans mind.

There was a movie starring Clint Eastwood -- called "Foxfire" or something close.

The Russians had developed a Jet that was controlled by the pilot's thoughts. Clint Eastwood's character could think in Russian and thus was chosen to steal the plane.

But the basic premise was thought control of a weapon. Undoubtedly the bad guys have been experimenting with this.

Research with animals has demonstrated that probes into various brain locations can control behavior. Not too hard to imagine that "reverse engineering" can create a microchip which can control human behavior.

Perhaps begin with "bad, misbehaving" children . . . then on to the next unruly population.

the drug companies making Ridlin would have a fit.

hack it, can they?

What they are doing is tying systems into unused (due to the paralisys) nerves. The task is then to retrain the brain to drive the functions set by the system.

Its not a case of thinking "lights on" and the lights turn on.