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Tiny Helicopter Piloted By Human Thoughts

41 points| smaili | 13 years ago |livescience.com | reply

26 comments

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[+] zsombor|13 years ago|reply
Downscaling the myriad of signals from your brain to 64 electrodes controlling four spacial dimensions seems tricky. I can see that making a fist may turn left, but what prevents any other random thought of being interpreted in the same way? I.e. how safe is a bike that turns left upon twisting the handlebars left, you may end up turning right with odds of 1:1000?
[+] curiousducky|13 years ago|reply
How many directions can EEG control.

If this is just up and down based on your level of concentration, it is relatively useless. However, if it maps all 6 directions, it is pretty impressive.

[+] DigitalJack|13 years ago|reply
Seems like a good candidate for machine learning. Train a neuralnet to recognize the EEG patterns that a given person wants to use to do a given operation.

For example, this one was having the subject think about making a fist, but it could be that having them "will" the copter to move right could be more intuitive. And with the right machine learning/recognizer it might be feasible.

This would be a serious amount of fun to work on.

[+] btilly|13 years ago|reply
If you read the article, they have 2 signals, one corresponding to what you're imagining your right hand doing, one to what your left is doing.

With this you have turn left, turn right, and both together is turn up.

To really fly it you need another control for speed. (They just made the speed constant.)

[+] damoncali|13 years ago|reply
I wonder how many "channels" can be worked out? 2? 20? 2,000? 2,000,000? Anyone have any background on this? It's fascinating to think of the complexity of a machine that could be controlled, when compared to the inherent limitations of pedals, wheels, switches and the like.
[+] JackpotDen|13 years ago|reply
the articles say 4 directions, but I'm going to assume that's because it's what they've been able to find clear enough patterns to map actions to. If they thought up a few more, ex "think about kicking your left leg" to move forwards, it could probably work. The leader talked about using wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs.
[+] vishaldpatel|13 years ago|reply
It would be interesting to learn how they account for: "No, not that way, I was just kidding."
[+] killing_time|13 years ago|reply
Whatever you do, don't think about getting hit in the face by a helicopter...
[+] blutack|13 years ago|reply
It's a Parrot ArDrone quadrotor. The frame is made of foam which encloses the rotors and the motors automatically cut off if they sense the blades are obstructed.

Being hit by one is like being bumped with a bit of polystyrene.