A Idiots Idea

[Dr. Who]

Hey all, im just a normal everyday guy with a idea.

 

Im not sure if there has ben any reasurch done for this. But i know there is work on taking brain waves and useing the data to move objects or tell what words they are thinking.

 

My idea is to do the opposite. How headphones plays a song out of the earpeice, have a connection to the brain to hear music without actually hearing with the ear. Or see a computer screen directly from your eyes without there being anything there. To roughly put it, hotwire the brains preceptions.

 

It would be cool to connect a cpu directly into yourself rather than a monitor, mouse, keyboard, and speakers. Or connect netflix directly into your conceness.

 

Is there work already started on this?

[imatfaal]

Yes - I will dig out some links if I can find them. I have seen videos of subjects controlling cursor via electrode skull cap picking up brain activity. Researchers have also got pretty good at predicting very vague forms and emotions held in a persons mind from the output of fMRI scans.

[Dr. Who]

im sure the technology will get there someday but it would be cool to be able to connect to the subconsciousness with a computer

[Bioc]

A while ago I saw, in the TV, a woman that was blind, and had some glasses with a cam plugged directly to the brain so, at least in the optics field, some research have been done

[CharonY]

The problem with controlling stuff via EEG is that it is still relatively crude. Details such as words are not possible to decipher from the information you can currently got. But something like movement or facial expression can be read out and used to translate into a simple control interface, such as mouse movements, for examples.

One of the examples is this here My link and OCZ had also a relatively cheap version.

[Dr. Who]

well they know how the ear works, they could decipher what the ear sends to the brain, then send that same pattern to the brain via wires?

 

also bioc, i just looked up what you said and that is exactly what i was thinking

Edited May 25, 2012 by Dr. Who

[SRHBRU]

If you browse the questions asked on MIT's Ask an Engineer, you will find similar questions and assertions.

 

 

I would post a link but not sure if that is within guidelines.

[PD7]

One way to do this would be to create a machine that takes the sound waves you hear, converts them into a electric signal and then plug it into the part of the ear and onto the nerve onto that part of the ear that picks up these sound waves naturally. My reason for thinking this is because that is exactly what the ear does to my knowledge. The ear takes sound waves and converts them into a electrical signal that travels through a nerve and into a certain part of the brain. A part of the brain that knows what electric signal corresponds to what sound wave and also knows what that sound wave sounds likes.

Now to see video without a screen you would have to find out what makes the eye see what it is seeing. Which I am told is the frontal lobe. If you knew that you could make a device that tells the eye to see something that is not really there. I think that this is possible because some chemicals do effect the vision centers of the brain. LSD and hallucinogenic mushrooms can make you see things that aren't really there. If you figured out how these chemicals made you see what you see and how to control it, theoretically you could control what you see. The ultimate form of this technology would be a pill you could take and then see a movie or T.V show.

If you combined these technologies, theoretically what you were saying is possible. All video consists of is a sound and a picture. Now, someone smarter than me figure out how to do just that so I can take a pill and then watch an episode of Doctor Who.

[Ringer]

One way to do this would be to create a machine that takes the sound waves you hear, converts them into a electric signal and then plug it into the part of the ear and onto the nerve onto that part of the ear that picks up these sound waves naturally. My reason for thinking this is because that is exactly what the ear does to my knowledge. The ear takes sound waves and converts them into a electrical signal that travels through a nerve and into a certain part of the brain. A part of the brain that knows what electric signal corresponds to what sound wave and also knows what that sound wave sounds likes.

Now to see video without a screen you would have to find out what makes the eye see what it is seeing. Which I am told is the frontal lobe. If you knew that you could make a device that tells the eye to see something that is not really there. I think that this is possible because some chemicals do effect the vision centers of the brain. LSD and hallucinogenic mushrooms can make you see things that aren't really there. If you figured out how these chemicals made you see what you see and how to control it, theoretically you could control what you see. The ultimate form of this technology would be a pill you could take and then see a movie or T.V show.

If you combined these technologies, theoretically what you were saying is possible. All video consists of is a sound and a picture. Now, someone smarter than me figure out how to do just that so I can take a pill and then watch an episode of Doctor Who.

 

2 things:

1.) I think you were looking for occipital lobe, not frontal

2.) If it were as easy as you explain, we could have had this decades ago

[dmaiski]

if the inner ear is still functional there are implants that can be put into the bone of the skull that will function like an ear/headphone

 

directly wiring an implant into the nervous system will probably have to wait for advances in nano surgery before you can get the resolution needed to mimic or enhance human senses with a cybernetic implant.

 

 

 

 

another option is to clone a biological ear, its somewhat difficult to do (ethics, legality, ect) but if its immune compatible you can get the body to link up the nerves on its own...

 

 

[PD7]

2 things:

1.) I think you were looking for occipital lobe, not frontal

2.) If it were as easy as you explain, we could have had this decades ago

 

Right occipital lobe. I seem to learn something new everyday. Also I am a science fiction writer so I tend to write about seemingly impossible things and usually have to find a somewhat believable way to explain things based off of actual science. That is all I was attempting do. I am a "real" scientist after-all. (Biology and Botany are my main fields of study though) I know some about astronomy, more about quantum particles than astronomy though. I do think what the originator of this topic is asking could be possible within the next 250-350 years.

[dmaiski]

In the next 250-350 years, definitely possible to do.

 

Assuming we don't have another dark age, we will probably have the capacity to achieve what you are describing in less then 40 years.

[PD7]

In the next 250-350 years, definitely possible to do.

 

Assuming we don't have another dark age, we will probably have the capacity to achieve what you are describing in less then 40 years.

 

 

Yes. At least that is what Dr.Kaku believes. He said in three hundred to four hundred years we could have technology that would resemble magic.

[Delta1212]

Yes. At least that is what Dr.Kaku believes. He said in three hundred to four hundred years we could have technology that would resemble magic.

Go back 300 to 400 years and today's technology sounds like magic. Heck, go back 100 to 200 years and a lot of stuff we have now sounds like magic. Even 10 to 20 years and a lot of people would be shocked at the rate of advance in some fields, even if they would have been much more predictable to people familiar with a particular area of technology than to their centuries-old counterpart.

 

Anyway, I know the primary discussion is from a while back, but I've actually got an EEG headset that I wrote a quick little program for to connect to and control a toy quadricopter, so I'm pretty familiar with the capabilities and limitations of the technology, at least as far as what is commercially available right now.

[PD7]

Can someone tell me how to add friends, (I haven't looked yet but will after I post this) That is the same thing I believe Delta.