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Maltese researchers build a mind-controlled music player
Imagine controlling a music player just by looking at your laptop. Engineers from the Department of Systems and Control Engineering and the Centre for Biomedical Cybernetics at the University of Malta led by Prof. Kenneth Camilleri are doing just that.
They have created a brain-controlled music player after having studied the best way to obtain the desired brain response, work that was presented at the 6th International IEEE/EMBS Neural Engineering Conference in San Diego, California by team member Dr Owen Falzon.
The researchers developed the system to improve the life of individuals with severely limited motor abilities. Just looking at flickering boxes on a screen controls the music player, no actions are needed. This brain-computer interface (BCI) technology could be the basis of emerging user interfaces for smartphones and tablets, as recently seen in worldwide media attention given to Samsung’s development of similar systems.
The system works by reading the brain activity of a user. The brain works by sending electrical signals; these are picked up by electrodes placed at specific positions on the scalp through a process known as electroencephalography (EEG). These EEG recordings are then used to convert patterns of electrical brain activity into computer commands. The commands control the music player without the need of any physical movement; the user just needs to look at the right box. The programme figures out where the user is looking through his or her brain patterns, allowing the music player to be controlled.
The system developed by Rosanne Zerafa (supervised by Dr Tracey Camilleri) reads a unique brain pattern called steady state visually evoked potentials (SSVEPs). This pattern occurs when a person looks at a light which is flickering at a certain frequency resulting in their brain synchronising at the same rate. The electrodes can pick up this pattern. By having boxes flashing at different frequencies, corresponding to a play button, up/down button or increase/decrease in volume, the system can tell if a user wants to start a new song, move on to the next one or pump up the volume. The user just needs to focus his/her attention on a flashing box.
The music player is based on typical smartphone app designs. The design is coupled to flashing boxes to trigger the brain’s SSVEPs and control the app. The performance of the music player was tested on users at the Biomedical Engineering Laboratory (University of Malta). Participants could reliably control the music player after it was calibrated to their brain patterns.
The system developed is based around a music player application. The same concept can be extended to various other applications such as for environmental control or assistive living and further research is currently being undertaken with these other applications in mind.
These BCI devices are being developed for people with severe movement difficulties, like sufferers of cerebral palsy or motor neuron disease. As they become more commonplace, they could revolutionise how human beings interact with the world around them.
Source: http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-01-20/news/maltese-researchers-build-a-mind-controlled-music-player-3721560071/
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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