Imagine what it would be like if we could turn our brains into remote controls, sending wireless commands to computers, robots and other machines.

Researchers hope ultimately to eavesdrop on the brain’s signals with electrodes, transmit them to a computer that can read the brain’s code and then use those signals to control a machine either locally or remotely via wireless or even the Internet.

Imagine a quadriplegic person able to operate a robotic arm mounted on a wheelchair with merely a thought. Or a digital data from a microphone directed to a deaf person’s auditory cortex, where it could become the perception of sound.

In the July 2004 issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery, Duke University neuroengineers report their success at temporarily implanting electrodes into the brains of human volunteers undergoing surgery for Parkinson’s disease and other tremor disorders.

The patients then played videogames while the electrodes recorded the brain signals. The scientists trained a computer to recognize the brain activity corresponding to the different movements of the joystick — the first step toward translating brain commands into computer ones.