Pilots Control Airplanes Using Only Their Brain Waves with New Technology (VIDEO)

It sounds like something out of a science fiction movie; scientists have created a way for pilots to control a plane using only their brains. With a wired cap on his head, a pilot can use his mind to control an aircraft and make a safe landing.

"A long-term vision of the project is to make flying accessible to more people," said Tim Fricke, who heads the project, called "Brainflight," in a news release. "With brain control, flying, in itself, could become easier. This would reduce the work load of pilots and thereby increase safety. In addition, pilots would have more freedom of movement to manage other manual tasks in the cockpit."

The flight system works by placing a wired cap on the controller's head. This cap measures the brain waves of the pilot using electroencephalography (EEG) electrodes connected to it. An algorithm designed by the scientists then interprets these brain waves.

In order to use the system, the pilot simply thinks about commands without having to physically make any movements. In order to test this system, though, the researchers had seven subjects take part in flight simulator tests. The volunteers had varying levels of flight experience, and one person didn't have any practical cockpit experience whatsoever.

"One of the subjects was able to follow eight out of ten target headings with a deviation of only 10 degrees," said Fricke in a news release.

That's not all, either. Several of the pilots were able to manage the landing approach even under poor visibility, and one test pilot landed within only a few meters of the centerline.

That said, a lot more experimentation and research will have to be conducted in order to improve the accuracy of this brain-controlled flight system. However, this new research is certainly a step in the right direction and shows that the idea is possible.

Currently, the researchers plan to focus on the question of how the requirements for the control system and flight dynamics need to be altered to accommodate the new control method.

Want to see more? Check out the video of the brain-controlled flight here.