Monkey Brains and Military Neuorscience
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A biological robot controlled by a blob of rat brain has been created by British scientists.
The wheeled machine is wirelessly linked to a bundle of neurons kept at body temperature in a sterile cabinet. Signals from the "brain" allow the robot to steer left or right to avoid objects in its path.
Researchers at the University of Reading are now trying to "teach" the robot to become familiar with its surroundings. They hope the experiment will show how memories manifest themselves in nerve connections as the robot revisits territory it has been to before.
Scientists in other parts of the world are also developing robots with living brains made from cultured cells. At the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, US researchers have built a similar mobile machine.
New Scientist magazine reported that the US team was training their robot as if it was an animal learning tricks.
The British research is led by Professor Kevin Warwick, who has pioneered the merging of biology and robotics by conducting bizarre "cyborg" experiments on himself. One involved embedding a microchip into the nerves of his left arm that allowed him to control an electric wheelchair and artificial hand.
The Reading robot's brain consists of a small pot containing some 300,000 rat neurons.
After first being disconnected, the nerves were then encouraged to make new connections with each other in a continuing process. The complex way neurons connect and "talk" to each other is fundamental to how an organic brain works. Electrodes attached to the neural network allow sensory and command signals in and out of the brain.
The robot has just one means of sensing its surroundings, an ultrasound probe that bounces sound waves off objects. If the sensor detects a wall in its path, a signal is sent to the brain through a Bluetooth radio link. The brain then replies with another message telling the robot to steer away from the obstacle.
The team is now moving away from this simple system and getting the robot to learn how to navigate. Eventually the robot will be able to recognise familiar surroundings it has memorised.
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Guess what? Military funds mind-reading science
Fri Aug 15, 9:30 PM
By Alicia Chang, The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - Here's a mind-bending idea: The U.S. military is paying scientists to study ways to read people's thoughts.
The hope is that the research could someday lead to a gadget capable of translating the thoughts of soldiers who suffered brain injuries in combat or even stroke patients in hospitals. But the research also raises concerns that such mind-reading technology could be used to interrogate the enemy.
Armed with a $4 million grant from the Army, scientists are studying brain signals to try to decipher what a person is thinking and to whom the person wants to direct the message.
The project is a collaboration among researchers at the University of California, Irvine; Carnegie Mellon University; and the University of Maryland.
The scientists use brain wave-reading technology known as electroencephalography, or EEG, which measures the brain's electrical activity through electrodes placed on the scalp.
It works like this: Volunteers wear an electrode cap and are asked to think of a word chosen by the researchers, who then analyze the brain activity.
In the future, scientists hope to develop thought-recognition software that would allow a computer to speak or type out a person's thought.
"To have a person think in a free manner and then figure out what that is, we're years away from that," said lead researcher Michael D'Zmura, who heads UC Irvine's cognitive sciences department.
D'Zmura said such a system would require extensive training by people trying to send a message and dismisses the notion that thoughts can be forced out.
"This will never be used in a way without somebody's real, active cooperation," he said.
John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a Virginia-based defence research firm, said the technology is still too nascent to be of practical use for the military.
"They're still in the proof of principle stage," Pike said.
A message left with the Army was not immediately returned Friday.
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