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back to article Brainscan breakthrough: Working robot limbs come closer

Canadian brain boffins are chuffed to announce a new breakthrough in the tricky business of machine mind-reading: they have developed a method of working out from brain scans what physical action a person is about to carry out – before he or she can actually do it. "This is a considerable step forward in our understanding of …

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  1. Inventor of the Marmite Laser Silver badge

    Puts new meaning to the phrase:

    "Premature ejaculation"

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  2. Suburban Inmate

    Wants and intentions...

    Can it tell the difference between a grunt _intending_ to shoot the enemy in the head and a grunt _wanting_ to smack his platoon commander in the mouth or pinch the first lady's bottom?

    This could make for some interesting court cases.

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  3. Thomas 18
    Thumb Up

    Added bonus to cyberlimbs

    You can override that inbuilt moral reluctance to shoot other humans. I recommend morality-activated polarising sunglasses for when the limbs take over.

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  4. Gary F
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    Portability may be a problem

    Being wheeled around strapped to a very heavy MRI scanner all day just so you can have control of a prosthetic arm may be a little inconvenient for some people. Maybe one day they'll be an app for this so your mobile can do the scanning! :-)

    I had no idea my Android mobile already has a metal detector built into it. What crazy purpose does that serve? Apart from holding it over someones fork or watch at the dinner table and proclaiming my phone has detected their fork/watch, it's unfortunately not powerful enough to hold over a friend's head to predict when they're about to move their arm. ;-)

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    1. bob 46
      Reply Icon

      shame

      "Being wheeled around strapped to a very heavy MRI..."

      shame you're not on this project - i bet they never thought of that

      Also, your android phone doesn't have a metal detector, it has a compass. There's an amusing little app that analyses fluctuations in the compass to extrapolate if the phone is near metal. Clever, but not very reliable or powerful

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    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Hmm...

      I know someone doing a PHd at the Cybernetics Department in Reading who is working on a very similar thing, but with portable, head mountable hardware. No NMR scanners.

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      1. TeeCee Gold badge
        Reply Icon
        WTF?

        Re: Hmm...

        I take it that there are no prizes on offer for correctly guessing who's behind this and already planning to have all his limbs sawn off and replaced with cybernetic ones?

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        1. Mike Flugennock
          Reply Icon
          Coat

          Re: Hmm...

          TeeCee sez on 06.30.11 @13:45gmt:

          "I take it that there are no prizes on offer for correctly guessing who's behind this and already planning to have all his limbs sawn off and replaced with cybernetic ones?"

          Uhhmm... that Black Knight from "Monty Python And The Holy Grail"?

          "Come back 'ere! It's only a flesh wound...!"

          (the chain-mail one, thanks)

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  5. strangefish

    acting without thinking

    congratulations you have either invented a 15 year old or a politician

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  6. Mips
    Childcatcher

    Hello Waldo!

    Robert A. Heinlein; Thank you. At last.

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  7. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

    Excellent news!

    This is an important breakthrough and nothing can possibly go wrong with it. DO NOT QUESTION IT.

    --

    Sent by my robotic arm!

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  8. Jarrett
    Thumb Up

    My ghost thinks this was bound to happen

    Just a few more years until we develop micro-machines and the MRI won't be needed. Of course, the first generation of new prosthetics will get hacked, and we'll get to laugh at the guy who can't control his arm because his buddy is sitting at the other end of the bar controlling it with his phone.

    Kinda weird that I had a conversation about this stuff (referencing GitS of course) with someone just a couple weeks ago.

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