http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/transportation/stories/researchers-create-car-that-can-be-steered-by-thought
Researchers create car that can be steered by thought
Scientists in Germany have equipped a car with new technology that measures the driver's brain waves.
By Bryan NelsonWed, Feb 23 2011 at 3:12 AM EST
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Photo: Robert S. Donovan/Flickr The case for outlawing the practice of talking on cell phones while driving got a boost from the latest breakthrough from the innovation labs of Freie Universität Berlin. German scientists working there have installed a car with new technology that can read the driver's brain waves, thus allowing the car to be steered entirely by thought, reports Science Daily. Needless to say, you probably don't want to be distracted while driving this vehicle.
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The technology is made possible by commercially available sensors for recording electroencephalograms (EEGs), which are basically the electrical outputs your brain produces while it thinks. Scientists then trained a computer program to distinguish the particular electrical patterns that are produced when a person thinks certain commands, such as "left," "right," "accelerate" or "brake."
Of course, this training couldn't have been done while out on the open road without being a hazard, so the scientists also created a virtual computer program more appropriate for the task. In this program, a person hooked up to the EEG sensors learned to maneauver a virtual cube around a screen using mental commands like those he or she might use when controlling a car.
Once the training was complete, it was time to take it out for a spin in the real world. Aside from being equipped with the brain-reading technology, the "Knight Rider"-esque car was also equipped with video cameras, radar and laser sensors so that it could independently interpret the simple commands given by the driver's thoughts and apply them appropriately.
"In our test runs, a driver equipped with EEG sensors was able to control the car with no problem — there was only a slight delay between the envisaged commands and the response of the car," said Professor Raúl Rojas, who headed the project at Freie Universität Berlin.
In other words, the technology is not quite ready for the open road, where rapid response times would be necessary to avoid perilous road conditions — but it's an impressive first step.
For a closer look at the technology in action, check out this short film assembled by the Freie Universität Berlin researchers: end quote.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDV_62QoHjY&feature=player_embedded
This above youtube.com address takes you to the thought controlled car video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDV_62QoHjY&feature=player_embedded
This above youtube.com address takes you to the thought controlled car video.
I first heard about technology like this which took it out of the realm of science fiction when I read "The Day After Roswell" by Defense Intelligence Agency Army Colonel Corso who worked directly under President Eisenhower and also under Army DIA General Trudeau. I think when this technology was first discovered as a relic of the Roswell Crash it killed many people because it was used to pilot the Roswell Craft and human brains could not sync with it. The is a much simplified version of what piloted the Roswell Craft. It has taken 64 years now since the Roswell crash for it to make it out of U.S. Top Secret kinds of Research and being used by pilots in fighter jets to pilot their jets when they couldn't move their arms in 9 G-load loops and turns where physical movement is impossible under that g-loading. The best the pilots can do under those conditions is try not to pass out. But they can still think usually and so it has been used as a way to pilot their jets in some situations along with artificial intelligence which is found on almost all fighter jets and now most commercial Air planes on earth for emergencies to land the planes when there is no pilot left alive on board or if for some reason everyone on board is unconscious for some reason. So, the fact that this technology has now reached being able to drive a car will benefit all of us in as yet unknown ways now and into the future.
NOTE: Don't forget to visit the site to watch the video of the technology actually being demonstrated while driving a car only with a mind.
NOTE: Don't forget to visit the site to watch the video of the technology actually being demonstrated while driving a car only with a mind.