PC thought control

Science Fiction aside, being able to control your various computer systems through a simple thought has always been one of those ‘cool, but we can’t do it with today’s technology’ type dreams. Whether you’re blasting away at Nazi’s in the Day of

Science Fiction aside, being able to control your various computer systems through a simple thought has always been one of those 'cool, but we can't do it with today's technology' type dreams. Whether you're blasting away at Nazi's in the Day of Defeat Half-Life mod, crushing the Zerg in Starcraft or simply typing up a document – being able to control your PCs via thought would give you a huge real-world advantage over those stuck with the conventional keyboard and mouse combination.

This type of technology was recently brought one step closer when John Donoghue and other researchers from Brown University demonstrated a device capable of moving a mouse cursor, using nothing more than input from the brain of a monkey.

The key to this technology lies in recognising what parts of the brain are active when a user manipulates the mouse. To determine this, Donoghue and his team inserted a small set of electrodes into the brains of three monkeys. The researchers then trained the monkeys to move a cursor around the screen using a joystick. Once this was accomplished, the team measured activity in different parts of the monkey's brains as they manipulated the cursor. What resulted was a map of which parts of the brain control hand movements necessary to manipulate a cursor.

Once the team had a good map of the brain signals generated by the monkeys, they removed the joysticks and replaced the input with signals from the electrode implants . The end result: all three monkeys were able to manipulate the cursor just as easily as they had when using the joystick.

Now that the fundamentals of PC thought control have been demonstrated, the possibilities are virtually limitless. Once properly researched and developed, techniques such as this could one day help disabled and paralysed people use computers – and through them everything in the surrounding environment – as easily as physically able people today.