Chinese Military Trains Students to Control Machines with Their Minds
August 12th, 2015The source article is in Chinese.
So, Daily Mail warning.
Via: Daily Mail:
Forget joysticks and exoskeletons, the future of warfare could see robot armies controlled using just a commander’s mind.
China has been training students at a military academy to use headsets that detect and interpret the brain activity of the wearer, allowing them to control the machines.
At a demonstration at the People’s Liberation Army Information Engineering University in Zhengzhou, students used the device to send robots trundling in different directions.
They were also able to turn the robot’s heads and get them to pick up objects.
The technology uses a brain computer interface known as a electroencephalograph, which uses electrodes embedded in a cap to detect tiny changes in the electrical activity of the brain.
By training a computer to recognise particular patterns that accompany commands, such as turn left or turn right, this can be then transmitted to control the robot.
The technology is being developed at the military academy’s laboratory for brain-machine coordination.
Unless the operator is sitting directly inside the robot, I see no benefit in having this mind reading system over a good old keyboard and mouse setup.
Even if the operator is sitting inside the robot, I think it would be simpler to use the exoskeleton technology instead.
But what do I know!