Man Controls A Robot With His Mind From 2000km Away

In the 2005 comic book series The
Surrogates (turned into a movie by
the same name in 2009) people
remotely operate humanoid robotic
substitutes with their minds. While
humans stay at home strapped to the
controls the surrogates go out to
stand in for their physical lives.
As tech innovation speeds up fiction
finds science hard on its heels. For
now an international team of
researchers has succeeded in mind-
controlling a robot located in France,
from a lab in Israel.
The robot was operated by research
assistant Tirosh Shapira. In the Israeli
lab Shapira’s brain activity was
measured by an fMRI scanner. At the
Béziers Technology Institute in France
a small robot mounted with a camera
awaited his instructions. Watching the
video feed from the robot’s point of
view, Shapira saw a member of the
French team urging him/the robot
forward with arm movements.
Shapira’s thoughts about moving his
leg were picked up by the brain
scanner, sent over the internet and
only with a small time delay, the robot
moved forward.
Shapira told New Scientist that he
wasn’t just amazed about the
technological feat they’d pulled but
also at how easy the human mind is
tricked: ‘At one point the connection
failed. One of the researchers picked
the robot up to see what the problem
was and I was like, ‘Oi, put me down!’’
Perhaps that could be explained by
watching the video feed with upmost
concentration but Shapira actually
identified with the robot. He describes
his reaction when the French team
unexpectedly put a mirror in front of
the robot ‘I thought, ‘oh I’m so cute, I
have blue eyes’, not ‘that robot is
cute’. It was amazing.’
Source: Newscientist.com
Photo source: News.softpedia.com