'Mind pilots' steer plane sim with thoughts alone, World Cup 2014 First Ball To Be Kicked By Paralyzed Teen With Mind-Controlled Prosthesis

'Mind pilots' steer plane sim with thoughts alone
Seven test pilots demonstrate an X-Men-like ability to steer an airplane through a flight simulation with surprising accuracy.
by Michael Franco     May 27, 2014

Electrodes attached to a cap convert brain waves into signals that can be processed by the flight simulator for hands-free flying. Technische Universität München....

New research out of the Technische Universität München (TUM) in Germany is hinting that mind control might soon reach entirely new heights -- even by us non-mutants. They've demonstrated that pilots might be able to fly planes through the sky using their thoughts alone.

The researchers hooked study participants to a cap containing dozens of electroencephalography (EEG) electrodes, sat them down in a flight simulator, and told them to steer the plane through the sim using their thoughts alone. The cap read the electrical signals from their brains and an algorithm then translated those signals into computer commands.

Seven people underwent the experiment and, according to the researchers, all were able to pilot the plane using their thoughts to such a degree that their performance could have satisfied some of the criteria for getting a pilot's license....
http://www.cnet.com/news/mind-pilots-steer-a-plane-with-thoughts-alone/


World Cup 2014 First Ball To Be Kicked By Paralyzed Teen With Mind-Controlled Prosthesis From ‘The Walk Again Project’ May 26, 2014
That quote, courtesy of David Prawel, Ph. D, is sure to get your attention. According to the report from Engadget, that’s exactly what he and the folks at Colorado State University have been working on according to the video above.

It describes a high-tech prosthesis designed as part of the “Walk Again Project,” a venture described by Duke University’s Immersive Virtual Environment (DiVE) as a “nonprofit, international collaboration among the Duke University Center for Neuroengineering, the Technical University of Munich, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, the Edmond and Lily Safra International Institute of Neuroscience of Natal in Brazil, The University of California, Davis, The University of Kentucky, and Regis Kopper of The Duke immersive Virtual Environment.”

“This is the first exoskelton that is getting feedback from the volunteer,” says Colorado State Vice President of Research Alan Rudolph, Ph. D. “who’s more integrated into the device and learning how to control the device through non-invasive signals, but more importantly through providing feedback about their world as they’re learning how to re-walk or learning again how to walk inside the exoskeleton.”

According to the Washington Post, the candidate, a Brazilian teenager paralyzed from the waist down and selected from a pool of 10, has been training for months with a virtual reality simulator. His legs will be stabilized by motorized metal braces, in turn stabilized by battery-powered gyroscopes. The desired result, of course, is that he will use this Iron Man-like prosthesis to translate human thought into mechanical motion on June 12 as part of the 2014 World Cup Opening Ceremony....
http://www.inquisitr.com/1268033/the-walk-again-project/