Thought-Controlled Robot

The Mainichi Daily News (Japan) reports that a college student has developed a robot that can be partially controlled through a neural interface. Taku Ichikawa of the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo hooks up electrodes to his head and then concentrates on certain images that serve as command prompts:

The control of the robot through reading neural signals — technology Ichikawa helped to develop for a hands-free wheelchair project — requires the operator to imagine a set of movements many times a day. During research into the wheelchair, the developers tied particular movements with particularly clear mental images, allowing users to command the chair without any previous training. For example, if a user could imagine badminton very clearly, that could become the command for forward.

Link via Popular Science | Image: Mainichi Daily News