Forum Discussion
How far are we from BCI VR ??
While it maybe largely impossible to send signals from computer into your brain, barring surginal implants, and it may
remain so for some time.. I would imagine that all senses, exept perhaps taste could propably be stimulated by some
form of external hardware pretty well anyway.. as long as your body don't move around...
Imagine VR interface where you lay inside the device (think solarium.. or the system used to control the "Navibots" in
the Avatar movie) but with imbedded headphones for audio and stereo displays for vision and hundreds or thousands
of computer controlled, pressurized air nozzles or something covering the interior to simulate the sense of touch to
every part of your body and possibly some device that sprays various chemical combinations to your nose to simulate
smell... I would imagine something like this could be build using the technology that exists today.. no ??
And the motor control ??
Looking at device like Emotiv EPOC..
It can apparently tell your facial expressions based on your brainwaves in realtime, and you can teach the device
to recognize some limited number of conscious thoughts and intents of your own choosing and it costs just ~300$
And it seems the limits are largely or entirely in the software.. If you can pay thousands and thousands more and
get a developer version with access to raw EEG data, you can program it to deal with it any way you see fit and
the cheaper version can apparently use the programs as far as the hardware is conserned...
And how much more can those medical EEG machines with their shitload of sensors get out from your head ??
How far are we from being able to read enough from your head to be able to provide motor control for a full
body virtual avatar ??
remain so for some time.. I would imagine that all senses, exept perhaps taste could propably be stimulated by some
form of external hardware pretty well anyway.. as long as your body don't move around...
Imagine VR interface where you lay inside the device (think solarium.. or the system used to control the "Navibots" in
the Avatar movie) but with imbedded headphones for audio and stereo displays for vision and hundreds or thousands
of computer controlled, pressurized air nozzles or something covering the interior to simulate the sense of touch to
every part of your body and possibly some device that sprays various chemical combinations to your nose to simulate
smell... I would imagine something like this could be build using the technology that exists today.. no ??
And the motor control ??
Looking at device like Emotiv EPOC..
It can apparently tell your facial expressions based on your brainwaves in realtime, and you can teach the device
to recognize some limited number of conscious thoughts and intents of your own choosing and it costs just ~300$
And it seems the limits are largely or entirely in the software.. If you can pay thousands and thousands more and
get a developer version with access to raw EEG data, you can program it to deal with it any way you see fit and
the cheaper version can apparently use the programs as far as the hardware is conserned...
And how much more can those medical EEG machines with their shitload of sensors get out from your head ??
How far are we from being able to read enough from your head to be able to provide motor control for a full
body virtual avatar ??
25 Replies
- Given extreme brain complexity, without extreme radiation power to burrow into the brain to scan it (which will as well destroy it), what we got now is pretty much top-notch.
You really just need a matrix plug. - no, there are excellent devices that can accurately read brainwaves remotely already. no need for an implant, a plug in or even an item that you wear. brainwaves can be accurately read and controlled by a computer already remotely, without any kind of touch at all. i can't remember where i saw the device but they can get it to do those simple computer tasks, you know, like forward and backwards when you concentrate and the device scans brainwaves from a distance.
wish i knew where i saw it so i could post the link. i think the main challenge is actually interpreting brainwaves in the computer to do advanced functions. - Yes I read a lot about that lately, and the truth is, these devices are bollocks. Simple xbox controller grants much more control and precision. To really nail it, you need a brain implant.
- Direct Neural Interfaces (DNI/BCI) may not be that far into the future. Most of this stuff is rather old now, so there is probably much more progress on this front than I show here:
"At http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CR_LBcZg_84
This talk is about research done to allow a monkey to control a robotic arm, as well as a virtual arm- including receiving sensory feedback from the virtual arm.
Potential path to a direct neural interface for VR?
They are doing this suff with humans too.
A robotic hand that can feel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=X85Lpuczy3E
It's possible to hack your brain, forcing you to reveal information that you’d rather keep secret:
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/134682-hackers-backdoor-the-human-brain-successfully-extract-sensitive-data
We can reconstruct visual images from fMRI data:
https://sites.google.com/site/gallantlabucb/publications/nishimoto-et-al-2011
We can record what people are dreaming about:
http://www.nature.com/news/scientists-read-dreams-1.11625
Cracked retinal coding, now a functional prosthetic eye:
http://www.ted.com/talks/sheila_nirenberg_a_prosthetic_eye_to_treat_blindness.html
Now decoding speech signals in the brain:
http://www.nature.com/news/voicegrams-transform-brain-activity-into-words-1.9945
I have been waiting most of my life for a Direct Neural Interface. Until then, my Rift and my Hydra will be my "Poor Man's" gateway to VR.
And here is another key to DNI (Direct Neural Interface):"mind meld" here we come!
And now, damaged parts of a brain have been replaced (bypassed) with a microprocessor, "restoring the circuit and bypassing the damaged area entirely", restoring the rat's ability to feed itself... Now we just need that extra bypass circuit to record, transmit, receive, and replay virtual experiences...
So yeah, we are getting there, perhaps much faster than we expect... - 4 weeks is a pretty good learning curve for the feedback.
Its a pity none of the products being targeted at consumers seems to be worth anything. I wonder if its hardware costs or software complexity that's holding them back. - Neither. If anything, it's health risks and surgery expenses.
But yeah, for some reason, the brain implants designed for treatment rather than research are just garbage. And for some wild reason, the software is garbage, too. - i'm not getting an implant. i'll settle for something wearable.
- To obtain full motoric and sensitive control of the brain one has to go much deeper into the rabbit hole. That is to say
from within the vascular system.
Nanobots, that term may appear rather fantastic,but fortunately are already a reality, manouverable and even graphene nano antennas exist in the micron nano format.
Invasive surgeries for billions of people are very unlikely in the next 10 decades. So if you really want a BMI without too many side effects then put your bets onto nanbots. They nevertheless will become a reality in the next decade as intelligent cancer drug delivery vehicles and be hopefully the solution to cancers. Its also no problem to manufacture billions of them for everyone because its mainly a self_assembly folding process. (DNA-Origami)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR_LBcZg_84 - I can only see this technology coming into the consumer market once we have perfected nanodevices such as neural dusts without any kind of invasive surgery.
Luckily for us, this whole field of research, into emulating senses through BCI, is something that is advancing greatly due to prosthetics, neuroscience and nanotechnology research. These are the areas of technology that will eventually enable have safe and practical BCI's. - if this happens....and there are good reasons for it to happen......so many things would change.....
we no longer will be the same society because of the humongous implications this tech would have.
First of all....resources.....like metal, concrete......materials in general would no longer be needed in such extensive way they are mined today. Because a virtual Eifeltower or a city like Paris would all in a sudden be existent! and you would make billions of copies of it. Even with all amount of its detail in a 100micron resolution(what is ultraHD and limit of human perception)....if storage hits one day a exabyte. (one PB already reached in lab with optical device)
Virtual objects also could have in a certain amount volume, with simplified physics but in a macroscale(1mmdepthatleast) that would be sufficient for human perception....
Society would evolve to a very academic one where things that matter are physics, medicine, science in general....
industry would almost completlely vanish unless it has sth to do with electronics,medicine,science and some necessary things like refrigerator,oven,solar....Cars? What is that.....there will be a public transportation system, but not that primitive traffic we have today....Skytren is very good i think.....Business??? what was that?
Sex? Yes, as long as you can :lol: and with a dream woman generator you will be able to generate many many women...
Family??? thats a good topic.....frightens me a bit.....i hope it wont change....
In other words we could live like virtual gods.
People will never change... who said that?
