Everyone is Magneto! Control the Reality Around You

Since the dawn of time, humankind has craved for greater mastery over the forces of nature. Such is our biological intelligence that we’ve had the ability to develop vast technologies which transform us from the organic world.

Images of super-powerful, towering constructs of steel and metallic awe have long been featured in science fiction, whether it’s the cyborgs from Terminator and Robocop, the vehicles from the Transformers series or the huge varieties of robotic beings from Star Wars — the examples are countless. Other fictional characters, like Magneto from the X-Men, have mastered forces of nature themselves, by warping magnetic fields to control ferrous metals.

The concept of controlling something with our minds has fascinated humans for decades and now, we are on the brink of streamlining this technology to a point where we can really investigate its most complex applications.

Prosthetic limbs can give freedom of movement back to those who have been involved in accidents or are victims of disease.

Some of the most notably groundbreaking studies involve patients with Completely Locked-in Syndrome, or CLIS, which is caused by the progressive neurodegenerative disease ALS. This disease removes all ability to move, whilst patients still retain the complete ability to think. However, using a combination of near-infrared spectroscopy and electroencephalography (EEG), candidates were able to communicate using ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers, with a hope that this level of restoring communication could be advanced still.

Like Neurogress’ products, this EEG based method is completely non-invasive.

By using robotics in this way, it cannot be denied that they have the power to influence our world positively. The skepticism over invasive methods is lifting as we develop non-invasive methods to read brain signals. Through numerous innovations now, worldwide, this positive potential is only broadening, with the inception of several new technologies which could help us master parts of our realities never before thought possible.

The endpoint of this technological potential is perhaps non-existent, but instead, near-infinite. Imagine a future where we can masterfully control robots with our minds. We’ll be able to see through their eyes with our own augmented vision, enabling us to neuro-control robots in military situations or disaster zones.

“Imagine being able to instantaneously tell a robot to do a certain action, without needing to type a command, push a button or even say a word,” — CSAIL Director Daniela Rus, from MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in Massachusetts.

EEG robotics in the past has relied on humans thinking in a way that is easily interpreted by robots. This would mean training people to think in a way which coincides with a robot’s function. Now, we are beginning to investigate how we can control robots with our minds more naturally, furthering our mastering of reality.

New EEG methods use “error-related potentials” (ErrPs), generated when our brains notice mistakes. This means we can control robots by simply agreeing or disagreeing with their actions, which over time, through machine-learning, adapt and mold to tasks.

The methods in which we can push our control over reality are increasing and Neurogress is assisting by pioneering new ways to use non-invasive methods in both medical scenarios and novel or otherwise useful ways.

There is no denial that neuro-control and EEG prosthetics are changing people’s lives for the better right now, but what about mastering our realities in other ways? Could we really become a world of augmented robotic humans?

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