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Researchers at the University of Technology Sydney have developed a technology to operate various devices or robots remotely, through the simple control of thought. This technology was recently demonstrated by the Australian Army, where soldiers were able to operate a quadruped robot using a novel brain-machine interface.
This interface was developed by Professors Chin-Teng Lin and Francesca Iacopi from UTS, in collaboration with the Australian Army and the Defense Innovation Center. It is made up of sensors, placed mainly at the back of the scalp and responsible for detecting brain waves from the visual cortex. These are composed of silicon and graphene, particularly resistant materials, but above all perfect conductors in contact with the skin.
The user wears an augmented reality headset that displays flashing white squares corresponding to as many possible commands. By focusing on one of them, the operator’s brain waves are picked up and then “translated” into an instruction (stop, turn right or left, etc.) via a kind of decoder. The machine then instantly executes the order.
This is unquestionably a breakthrough in brain-machine interfaces. Moreover, this type of interface also greatly simplifies life since it is no longer necessary to use tools such as keyboards, joysticks or even touch screens to interact with a machine. This technology could eventually be particularly useful in the field of aerospace or even health. It is thus possible to imagine one day a disabled person able to “control” his chair or his prostheses by simple thought.
It should be noted that this work has been the subject of a publication in the scientific journal ACS Applied Nano Materials.