This week, a research breakthrough at the University of Washington brings us one step closer to living as cyborgs. Chao Zhong and his colleagues have built a biocompatible solid state device made from the shells of crustaceans tha’s able to monitor and control the flow of protons. Unlike electronic machines that transfer information via electrons, our bodies and brains do it via ions and protons. And that difference between machines and bodies — we’re incompatible technology — has been one challenge to advancing cybernetics.
That’s not the only challenge. Several technologies allow people to control machines with their minds
(Source: 964sick)
Dogs 2.0
via floremounier
(via xevilious)
Scientists Create First Memory Expansion for Brain
This is very exciting. I would love to have a secondary storage in my head where I could commit memories worth keeping. Bonus points if the in-silico memory is not as easily re-written and altered by sub-conscious processes as biological memory.
DARPA’s Mind-Controlled Prosthetic Arm Could Be on the Market in Four Years
Source: Fast Company
Finally, laypeople will benefit from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) mad scientist projects (see: thinking cameras and flying Humvees). As part of its just-announced Innovation Pathway, a priority review program for breakthrough medical devices, the FDA will fast-track the review of DARPA’s mind-controlled robotic arm.
The arm, which was developed at a cost of over $100 million by DARPA and Johns Hopkins University over the past five years, is controlled by a microchip in the brain. The microchip records neuron activity and decodes the signals to activate motor neurons that control the prosthetic.
DARPA’s prosthetic works much like a regular arm, with the ability to bend, rotate, and twist in 27 different ways. It is designed to restore almost complete hand and finger function to patients dealing with spinal cord injury, stroke, or amputation.
(via techspotlight)
Calgary microchip 'talks' to brain cells
“I can’t be too sure I might see that final bionic hybrid, you know that whole Terminator idea that always gets brought up, but for sure we are going to make a lot of progress,” said researcher Collin Luk.
Telescopic eye implant approved by the FDA
In the works for well over a year, and approved by the FDA a couple days ago, VisionCare Ophthalmic Technologies’ implantable miniature telescope is intended for patients over 75 years of age who are suffering from end-stage macular degeneration.
As with any tricky new surgery, this one is not without risks, including the need for a corneal transplant due to the device’s size. According to CBC News, in clinical testing 75% of over 200 patients “had their vision improve from severe or profound impairment to moderate impairment,” and there are two more studies on the way: one will follow up with existing patients, while the other will outfit 770 new patients with the device. The cost? $15,000.
The coming apocalypse is taking a different form than I expected.
Survival Instinct, 6x02
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