Computer That You Can Control Using Your Mind Is On The Way

A team of researchers may just be on the verge of developing a computer that you can control with your mind.

The research team, led by Angelika Lingnau, from the Department of Psychology at Royal Holloway, University of London, claimed that they were able to predict participants' movements by analyzing their brain activity, according to a news release.

"We are very excited by our findings because it is the first time a human study of this kind has been carried out where the participants were able to choose a movement by themselves and were the only ones who knew what they had planned to do," Lingnau said. "We were successfully able to predict what action they were going to carry out just from analyzing their brain signals."

In their study, Lingnau and her team used magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and participants planned and performed basic hand movements inside the scanner.

The participants chose three hand movements. By using machine learning algorithms, the researchers then determined whether they were able to predict which movement the participant was going to perform, based on the brain activity that was measured during the planning phase.

This is study could be a first step in the development of brain-computer interfaces.

"This opens up huge possibilities for the future including the development of technology you can control with your mind as well as enabling the development of methods for helping those with paralysis to have direct brain control to the affected areas," Lingnau said. 

Related Articles 

Scientists Develop Virtual K-POP Dance Teacher With 3D Tracking Of Body Joints

Precision Lasers Used To Redefine Temperature, Measure Speed of Atoms

For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).