Robotic Nation Evidence

This article discusses a first step toward the Vertebrane system:

Mind over video game

From the article:

Using thought alone and with some electrodes placed on the surface of the brain, four volunteers were able to control a video game, U.S. researchers reported Monday.

Simply by thinking the word "move", the volunteers played the simple video game, the researchers reported.

Also:

Other researchers have worked with implanted electrodes in both monkeys and humans, but Leuthardt said this approach does not require putting anything deep into the brain.

"There is the potential for it to be very much less invasive," he said.

Writing in Monday's issue of the Journal of Neural Engineering, Leuthardt and Daniel Moran, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, said the patients learned in minutes how to control a computer cursor.

"It took six minutes of training and they all achieved control in less than 24 minutes," Leuthardt said.

"After a brief training session, the patients could play the game by using signals that come off the surface of the brain," added Moran. "They achieved between 74 and 100 percent accuracy, with one patient hitting 33 out of 33 targets correctly in a row."

This is nice, but it has its limits. The human body has hundreds of muscles that the brain controls, and it will not be possible to replicate that type of intricacy with electrodes on the surface of the brain. By tapping right into the spinal cord, the Vertebrane system gets all the data heading for the muscles. In addition, the Vertebrane system allows for data input as well -- touch, smell, vision, hearing, etc.

Once people are controlling video games with their thoughts, they will like it. They will want a richer and richer experience. Eventually they will want a completely seamless experience with the Vertebrane system, where it is impossible to differentiate the game world from real life.

[Power implant aims to run on body heat -- a new way to power implanted devices like Vertebrane.]