The car and the power of thought

Engineers and programmers from Berlin created an interface that allows you to drive the power of thought. Early tests showed that the volunteers are conventionally at the helm, no problems coping with the task.

 Project Engineer BrainDriver laboratory AutoNOMOS become pioneers in the field machine control through thought. The core team - a group of Artificial Intelligence (Künstliche Intelligenz), Free University of Berlin, headed by Professor Raul Rojas (Raúl Rojas).
Raul and his colleagues created based on the Volkswagen Passat almost autonomous vehicle, direction of movement which, as well as determine the speed of thought the driver. First of all, the inventors have provided all sorts of car sensors and cameras to protect the test driver of the possible unpleasant consequences of mental control. Laser and microwave radar provides car-round visibility, could prevent a collision with obstacles. Moreover, the current prototype is able to sense the vehicle in front at a distance of 200 meters.
Then the German engineers have developed an interface the human brain - a car. At the head of the volunteer wears a special cap with 16 sensors. It reads the EEG, and software (the original, modified for the needs of the project) determines what a person thinks. Of course, the specific thoughts, it is unable to read. But it can be trained in advance that a certain picture of brain waves should be interpreted as a right turn, the other - turn left, and the third and fourth - acceleration and deceleration.
First, the future driver of a volunteer coach program controlling a virtual cube on a computer monitor. He sent his mind right and left. So soft got an idea about the thoughts of the driver. Then the real test drive was arranged one controlled only thoughts Passat. "Exercises" were held on the territory of today is not working Tempelhof airport. As developers write on his website: "Today is just a demo experience. And the result, of course, not enough for a full road test. But the potential for human-machine interface is huge. "
The present development, above all, an interesting experiment: the engineers have yet to learn the person and the machine work effectively in contact. But perhaps in the future by thinking people with disabilities will be able to drive a car, which still are subject to a wheelchair so some exoskeletons. In addition, the interface can be useful for controlling other devices as well as to create a "hybrid" driving or any other technique (advanced exoskeleton, for example).