ROBOT PAINTS YOUR SLEEP PATTERN

Measuring sleep usually involves attaching sensors to a person's head and then creating basic charts and graphs based on brain waves. Now a robot is using similar technology to create art. It's part of the "Sleep Art Experience," a six-week project being promoted by five Ibis-brand hotels in France, Germany and Great Britain.

It starts with 80 sensors embedded in hotel room mattresses. The sensors record sleep variables including motion, temperature and sound between midnight and 7 am. That data is transmitted via Wi-Fi to a robot housed in a studio in Paris. The robot uses an algorithm to convert the data into art, which is expressed through a series of brushstrokes on a black canvas. The result is a beautiful depiction of what an individual's sleep looks like, blending together the best of science and art.

Forty participants will have their sleep patterns turned into possibly the coolest piece of bedroom art ever. Registration for the Paris dates have already passed, but if you're in the Berlin or London area this month, check out Ibis' Facebook page to enter for a chance to participate.

Mind Controlled Android Robot

An Electrode Cap and Computer Program Can Translate Brain Signals Into Commands For A Humanoid Robot.

Researchers in Japan are using a brain-machine interface to control the actions of a humanoid robot. The goal is to allow people “to feel embodied in the body of a humanoid robot,” in the words of one researcher.

Roboticists at the CRNS-AIST Joint Robotics Laboratory, a collaboration between the French National Center for Scientific Research and the Japanese Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, are trying to interpret brain waves into actions that can be understood by a robot. In the video below, a volunteer wears an electrode cap and watches a screen with flashing dots, which is used to teach his brain to associate flickering objects with actions. By focusing his attention, he can induce actions, which are translated from his brain activity into robotic motion.

A signal processing unit on a computer translates his brain activity and classifies it into a series of tasks. Then the team can instruct the robot on which task to perform. It could help paraplegics who can’t perform certain tasks on their own. Or it could be used for crazyfuture tourism, says Abderrahmane Kheddar, director of the JRL: “A paraplegic patient in Rome would be able to pilot a humanoid robot for sightseeing in Japan.”

Via: "PopSci"

Paralyzed Woman Uses Thought-Controlled Robotic Arm

The BrainGate implantable microelectrode array

Cathy Hutchinson has been unable to move her own arms or legs for 15 years. But using the most advanced brain-machine interface ever developed, she can steer a robotic arm towards a bottle, pick it up, and drink her morning coffee. The interface includes a sensor implanted in Cathy’s brain, which ‘reads’ her thoughts, and a decoder, which turns her thoughts into instructions for the robotic arm. In this video, watch Cathy control the arm and hear from the team behind the pioneering study.

The trial was a collaborative effort of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Brown University, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and the German Aerospace Center (DLR). It had two participants – the woman and a 66 year-old man, identified only as S3 and T2, respectively. Both of them had lost the use of their limbs years ago, due to brainstem strokes. They manipulated two different robotic arms, designed by the DLR Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics, and DEKA Research and Development Corp.

The business end of BrainGate, however, is a silicon microelectrode array that was implanted in each subject’s motor cortex (a part of the brain that’s associated with voluntary movement). That array is described as being about the size of a baby Aspirin, and contains 96 separate electrodes. An output cable leads from that array, to an external port on top of the user’s head.

Read the original research paper: Reach and grasp by people with tetraplegia using a neurally controlled robotic arm.

Via: “GizMag”

"Luke Skywalker" Binoculars Use Brain Waves To Spot Threats

By Katie Drummond,

Five years after the Pentagon first conceived of them, the binoculars of the future have arrived: Scopes that not only allow soldiers to scan wide-ranging areas and lengthy distances, but that tap into their brains to vastly improve threat-detection.

Called the Cognitive Technology Threat Warning System (CT2WS), the initiative was first launched in 2007 by — not surprisingly — DARPA. Today, the agency announced the results of field tests using the futuristic system, which was nicknamed “Luke Skywalker” early on in the program. According to DARPA, the binoculars yielded a 91 percent success rate in detecting threats. By comparison, soldiers using conventional binoculars or camera systems currently miss around 47 percent of potential dangers.

The system is comprised of a high-powered video camera, mounted to a tripod, that boasts a 120-degree field of vision. That camera works in tandem with an electroencephalogram (EEG) cap, worn on a soldier’s head, that actually monitors brain signals in real-time and then transmits them to a computer system. That system is programmed with “cognitive visual processing algorithms” that can crunch the deluge of brainwave data, and “cue” noteworthy images for an operator to look over.

Using the system, a soldier scanning a given region would be “shown approximately ten images per second, on average.” Instead of having to process potential threats oneself, the soldier (and an operator reviewing key images) would instead rely on subtle brain signals — picked up by the EEG cap — to hone in on hazards. The EEG data, according to DARPA, can enhance accuracy and hasten the rate at which threats are detected, by spotting theminside the brain before a soldier has even processed the situation.

“CT2WS built on the concept that humans are inherently adept at detecting the unusual,” reads a statement from DARPA. “Even though a person may not be consciously aware of movement or of unexpected appearance, the brain detects it and triggers the P-300 brainwave, a brain signal that is thought to be involved in stimulus evaluation or categorization.”

In other words, CT2WS harnesses that capacity for detection, without relying on conscious input from the wearer. And, at least according to these field tests, it seems to work extremely well when combined with human input. When tested without someone wearing an EEG cap, the system produced 810 false alarms every hour. Add a soldier decked out in EEG sensors to the mix, and that figure dropped to five false positives.

I’ve reached out to DARPA for more particulars on the prototype, which was developed by a team that includes HRL Laboratories and the University of California, San Diego. But based on reporting from Sharon Weinberger at Wired in 2007, the agency also wanted the binoculars to have a range from 1,000 to 10,000 meters, and be able to spy moving vehicles at a range of up to 6 miles.

Via: "Forbes Magazine"

Paralyzed Woman Uses Thought-Controlled Robotic Arm

Cathy Hutchinson has been unable to move her own arms or legs for 15 years. But using the most advanced brain-machine interface ever developed, she can steer a robotic arm towards a bottle, pick it up, and drink her morning coffee. The interface includes a sensor implanted in Cathy's brain, which 'reads' her thoughts, and a decoder, which turns her thoughts into instructions for the robotic arm. In this video, watch Cathy control the arm and hear from the team behind the pioneering study.

The trial was a collaborative effort of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Brown University, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and the German Aerospace Center (DLR). It had two participants – the woman and a 66 year-old man, identified only as S3 and T2, respectively. Both of them had lost the use of their limbs years ago, due to brainstem strokes. They manipulated two different robotic arms, designed by the DLR Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics, and DEKA Research and Development Corp.

The BrainGate implantable microelectrode array

The business end of BrainGate, however, is a silicon microelectrode array that was implanted in each subject’s motor cortex (a part of the brain that’s associated with voluntary movement). That array is described as being about the size of a baby Aspirin, and contains 96 separate electrodes. An output cable leads from that array, to an external port on top of the user’s head.

Read the original research paper: Reach and grasp by people with tetraplegia using a neurally controlled robotic arm.

Via: "GizMag"