Merlin
03-14-2002, 07:28 AM
From today's Financial Times...
INSIDE TRACK: Of mice and monkeys TECHNOLOGY WORTH WATCHING
Financial Times; Mar 14, 2002
By FIONA HARVEY
Monkeys that can control computer cursors by thought alone may offer hope for paralysed people.
An algorithm has been created in the US that allows monkeys to move a computer cursor just by thinking about it. The research, described in today's edition of the scientific journal Nature, advances previous studies, in which monkeys needed extensive training to complete such tasks and achieved only a limited repertoire of movements.
The experiments at Brown University showed that activity in the motor cortex of a monkey's brain could be accurately translated by a computer into the movement, in real time, of the computer's cursor. Electrodes recorded the activity of a few neurones in the motor cortex during a series of exercises in which a monkey manually controlled a computer mouse. A mathematical model was built to translate the firing of the neurones into the cursor's position. Then the monkey played a computer game and after a while the researchers turned off the animal's manual control of the cursor and handed control to the neurone system.
The researchers say the animal's hands-free cursor control was nearly as fast and accurate at pursuing a target on the computer screen as when the monkeys were allowed to use their hands. They believe the system, which depends on an implant in the monkey's brain, is also suitable for human and could help paralysed people to work with computers. Brown University, Rhode Island, US; tel: 001 401 863 1000; www.brown.edu
Copyright: The Financial Times Limited 1995-2002
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When the monkeys do take over, make sure you're on the right side. I know who I'm picking in the next round of the select-a-simian poll.
INSIDE TRACK: Of mice and monkeys TECHNOLOGY WORTH WATCHING
Financial Times; Mar 14, 2002
By FIONA HARVEY
Monkeys that can control computer cursors by thought alone may offer hope for paralysed people.
An algorithm has been created in the US that allows monkeys to move a computer cursor just by thinking about it. The research, described in today's edition of the scientific journal Nature, advances previous studies, in which monkeys needed extensive training to complete such tasks and achieved only a limited repertoire of movements.
The experiments at Brown University showed that activity in the motor cortex of a monkey's brain could be accurately translated by a computer into the movement, in real time, of the computer's cursor. Electrodes recorded the activity of a few neurones in the motor cortex during a series of exercises in which a monkey manually controlled a computer mouse. A mathematical model was built to translate the firing of the neurones into the cursor's position. Then the monkey played a computer game and after a while the researchers turned off the animal's manual control of the cursor and handed control to the neurone system.
The researchers say the animal's hands-free cursor control was nearly as fast and accurate at pursuing a target on the computer screen as when the monkeys were allowed to use their hands. They believe the system, which depends on an implant in the monkey's brain, is also suitable for human and could help paralysed people to work with computers. Brown University, Rhode Island, US; tel: 001 401 863 1000; www.brown.edu
Copyright: The Financial Times Limited 1995-2002
================================================================
When the monkeys do take over, make sure you're on the right side. I know who I'm picking in the next round of the select-a-simian poll.