Lucky Luke is, above all, for his nimble hands known. The taciturn Cowboy, the comic figure represents, you can pull the gun faster than his own shadow. This ability want to give the United States their soldiers. The one can conclude, at least from an announcement of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), the research authority of the us Department of defense.
at the beginning of September, the authority celebrated its sixty year anniversary. On this occasion, Al Emondi, an expert in neuro-technology, Darpa said that soldiers needed to find new ways to come up with machines to work together. “However, most of the previously developed technologies require an Operation,” he was quoted by the engineering magazine IEEE Spectrum. This is not the right way to achieve the new goals.
in fact, has done the Darpa now has been the inability to connect physically disabled people with machines. It was about paralyzed, or amputated veterans of the robotic arms and prosthetics using brain implanted electrodes control. Al Emondi wants to develop with his program “Next-Generation Nonsurgical neuro-technology,” but technology, the brains of healthy people without the Operation of machines connecting. The objectives of this programme is to raise questions. Not only then, if all that is technically feasible. But also, whether such a development would be desirable.
pure imagination
The Darpa selects currently, researchers who want to promote about the program. To develop devices that read hand signals in the brain, and on the other hand the information directly to the brain. According to the specifications in these brain must recognize-computer interfaces, the signals within 50 milliseconds. In four years, a person should be able to control military equipment, such as a flying drone.
“seem to Me to put these goals high,” says Gernot Müller-Putz. At the Technical University of Graz he-invasive brain-Computer-interfaces-was researched for over 20 years. A common method for this purpose, the electroencephalography, in which electrodes on the scalp of a patient the brain waves measure. A computer program that detects patterns and makes a rhyme on the signals. In this way, paralyzed, can write today with a lot of Practice texts, characters in computer games control or with the Hand grab. For the Latter, you imagine, as you close the Hand. An algorithm to recognize these thoughts in the brain, and another System sends electrical signals to the muscles of the Hand. This, however, is anything other than a timely manner. “It takes a while until the pattern on the surface is measurable,” says Müller-Putz. Until the Computer recognize it, finally, pass away at least half a second. This is the current state-of-the-art technology. Darpa wants to create the ten times faster.
