Mind-meld brain power is best for steering spaceships
February 4, 2013
BCI system (credit: University of Essex)
Researchers are discovering that they get better results in some tasks by combining the signals from multiple brain-computer interface (BCI) users.
Until now, this “collaborative BCI” technique has been used in simple pattern-recognition tasks, but a team at the University of Essex in the UK wanted to test it more rigorously, New Scientist reports.
So they developed a simulator in which pairs of BCI users had to steer a craft towards the dead center of a planet by thinking about one of eight directions that they could fly in, like using compass points. Brain signals representing the users’ chosen direction, as interpreted by the machine-learning system, were merged in real time and the spacecraft followed that path.
The results, to be presented at an Intelligent User Interfaces conference in California in March, strongly favored two-brain navigation.
The technique can also compensate for a lapse in attention.
One day groups of people hooked up to brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) might work together to control complex robotic and telepresence systems, maybe even in space. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California, has been observing the work while itself investigating BCI’s potential for controlling planetary rovers, for example.
(Insert back-seat-driver joke here. — Editor)
Comments (6)
by Techisbest
What do you know. Two heads ARE better than one.
by GatorALLin
Visions of the Borg appeared for me thinking of this idea/tool.
Origin: Delta Quadrant. A cybernetic life-form thousands of years old which is part organic, part artificial life. They have advanced well beyond Federation science, unknown prior to a confrontation with the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D arranged by the entity known as “Q” circa stardate 42761 ( 2365) some 7,000 light-years past explored Federation space in the Delta Quadrant.
The Borg have a singular goal, namely the consumption of technology, rather than wealth or political expansion as most species seek.
According to their spokesman, in the form of an assimilated Captain Jean-Luc Picard, the Borg only want to “raise the quality of life” of the species they “assimilate.” (See “Best of Both Worlds”) Androids, for example, they view as primitive and obsolete. Born humanoid, they are almost immediately implanted with bio-chips that link their brains to a collective consciousness via a unique subspace frequency emitted by each drone.
This collective consciousness is experienced by the Borg as “thousands” of voices — they are collectively aware, but not aware of themselves as separate individuals. Consequently, they never speak in singular pronouns, referring to themselves when required as merely “Third of Five,” for instance.
The Borg ingest only energy to drive their technological system via an energy conduit port. Their bio-chips synthesize any organic nutrients needed. Among the many advantages their collective consciousness affords them, the Borg hive-mind allows for instantaneous adaptations to shield and phaser frequency modulations in combat; they are also able to regenerate and repair their massive cube ship with the power of their collective thoughts alone.
The hive-mind drones do not register as individual life-signs when scanned, only as a mass reading and then at a bare minimum. The sick and injured are not healed but “reabsorbed” by the removal of the receiver piece, which leads to self-destructive dissolve.
When shipboard during dormancy in their regenerative mode, power is minimal and the vessel’s EM field cuts off. They have a knock-out drug or procedure for humans, using a drill-tap placed behind the left ear, that works immediately but wears off in less than a minute.
by Bri
No matter how hard my wife and I try and use the BCI to drive, she always over powers me and we end up at a shoe store. Pa dum ta! (snare drum and cymbol)
by MikeB
Inefficient. The challenge is that multiple drivers mean more crew required to drive the ship/rover at any given time, more mouths to feed/pay, more space required for redundant systems and pilot seats, etc. This _is_ an interesting experiment vis-a-vis group dynamics and consensus building in the absence of verbal communication.
Edit Note: First sentence last para., should be first sentence of the article so reader knows what a BCI is.
by Editor
Good idea, fixed (I hope).
by Jacob Lee
Yeah but…
http://www.kurzweilai.net/uploaded-e-crews-for-interstellar-missions