{"id":2480,"date":"2011-04-06T22:00:01","date_gmt":"2011-04-07T02:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ombs\/?p=2480"},"modified":"2011-04-06T22:00:01","modified_gmt":"2011-04-07T02:00:01","slug":"hey-scientists-where%e2%80%99s-my-jetpack-the-future-is-here-it-just-looks-a-little-different-than-expected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/2011\/04\/06\/hey-scientists-where%e2%80%99s-my-jetpack-the-future-is-here-it-just-looks-a-little-different-than-expected\/","title":{"rendered":"Hey Scientists, Where\u2019s My Jetpack?! : The future is here; it just looks a little different than expected"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"st_twitter_large\"><\/span><span class=\"st_facebook_large\"><\/span><span class=\"st_ybuzz_large\"><\/span><span class=\"st_gbuzz_large\"><\/span><span class=\"st_email_large\"><\/span><span class=\"st_sharethis_large\"><\/span><br \/>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/w.sharethis.com\/button\/buttons.js\"><\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\">stLight.options({publisher:'0b9142ea-42f7-4b62-947d-dd7654ef4f2d'});<\/script><\/p>\n<p>In almost every major futuristic science-fiction work of the last century, jetpacks and flying cars are seemingly as ubiquitous as today\u2019s oversized SUV\u2019s, lining the closets and garages of every hardworking American.\u00a0 Understandably, in the year 2011, this has lead many disenchanted Trekkies and purveyors of assorted geek cultures to ask, \u201cWell, scientists, where\u2019s my jetpack?!\u201d\u00a0 While I commiserate with my fellow fans of Asimov and Adams, several recent innovations have led me to believe that we all might be overlooking just how \u201cfuturistic\u201d the time we live in really is.\u00a0 Accessing Google on the iPhone is certainly as close to the Hitchhiker\u2019s guide to the galaxy as we may ever come.\u00a0 We have the ability to beam blueprints of intricate plastic objects and now<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ted.com\/talks\/anthony_atala_printing_a_human_kidney.html\"> even organs<\/a> anywhere in the world and literally print them out.\u00a0 We have computers that can beat us in Jeopardy!\u00a0 And last but not least, Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you Brain Driver, the thought-controlled car.\u00a0 On behalf of scientists everywhere, I accept your apologies, geeks.<!--more--><\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 336px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.winicabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/autonomos-taxi_1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.winicabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/autonomos-taxi_1.jpg\" alt=\"The AutoNOMOs Project's semi-autonomous car can be powered by smart phones, tablet computers, and now even your own thoughts.\" width=\"326\" height=\"215\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The AutoNOMOs Project&#039;s semi-autonomous car can be powered by smart phones, tablet computers, and now even your own thoughts.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Brain Driver, a semi-autonomous thought-controlled vehicle, is a research endeavor by the AutoNOMOS project, a division of the Artificial Intelligence Lab at the Freie Universit\u00e4t Berlin headed by Raul Rojas.\u00a0 The car itself is fully decked out with 360 degree scanning lasers and cameras.\u00a0 This allows it to navigate roads, to stay within lines, to avoid pedestrians and other obstructions, and to look super futuristic.\u00a0 I know, how mundane right?\u00a0 We\u2019ve all seen that Lexus parallel park itself on TV; this doesn\u2019t impress me.\u00a0 Except that the team at the AutoNOMOS project isn\u2019t content with stopping here.  They have utilized a new consumer EEG technology from Emotiv, called the Epoc, to map distinct thought patterns recorded from the brain onto navigation directions that can be used to control the car.\u00a0 The Epoc, not the first consumer EEG (Electroencephalography) system of its kind but definitely the most user friendly, uses 16-channels to record electrical patterns in the user\u2019s brain from outside the skull as the user is asked to move a virtual cube on a computer screen to the right, left, forward or backward.\u00a0 Custom algorithms are then used to map these \u201cthought\u201d patterns, unique to each individual, onto specific navigation commands for the car (forward and backward corresponding to acceleration and deceleration respectively).\u00a0 As the car approaches an intersection, the system records the thought pattern of the driver and proceeds to turn in the desired direction.<\/p>\n<p>Well, that\u2019s the plan anyway.\u00a0 While the system does work with good regularity, there is a distinct drawback to the two-second delay between when the electrical patterns are read and when the car actually turns.\u00a0 It also has the limitation of only being able to discern between four different commands, not exactly enough for normal road navigation.\u00a0 It also appears that a large swath of the population seems to be what Rojas refers to in an article on Wired.com as \u201cBCI illiterate\u201d, or incapable of using EEG based brain-computer interface technologies.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 260px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/gadgets.boingboing.net\/gimages\/emotiv_epoc.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/gadgets.boingboing.net\/gimages\/emotiv_epoc.jpg\" alt=\"The Emotiv Epoc EEG headset allows mind reading to become a portable activity.\" width=\"250\" height=\"248\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Emotiv Epoc EEG headset allows mind reading to become a portable activity.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>If vaguely unreliable, thought-controlled cars seem like a bad idea to you, I can certainly see where you are coming from.\u00a0 It\u2019s undeniable that this isn\u2019t intended to be the ultimate use of this technology.\u00a0 There are, thankfully, researches looking to apply these very same ideas to more useful and practical means, like motorized wheelchairs.\u00a0 When applied in this way, this gadget moves beyond the realm of mere novelty item intended to intrigue the masses, into a life changing technology for people who could truly use it.\u00a0 A thought-controlled wheelchair would allow quadriplegics, and others whose conditions leave them with minimal control of their bodies, to move about their worlds simply with their thoughts.\u00a0 As far back as 2007, Javier Minguez of the University of Zaragosa gave an interview to Wired.com discussing his group\u2019s work on thought-controlled wheelchairs.\u00a0 At that time, portable consumer EEG technologies were not available; subjects were literally tethered to oversized desktop computers.\u00a0 One could see how this might be a problem.\u00a0 With the advent of the Emotiv Epoc, and the vehicle control technologies developed by the AutoNOMOS project, the hurdles between the current state of this technology and widespread consumer availability now lay exclusively in training people to use the technology, and increasing the number, and complexity of the directions the system can learn.\u00a0 Australian researchers D.A. Craig and H.T. Nguyen at the University of Technology in Sydney are already hard at work on this problem.\u00a0 In a clever attempt to map a greater number of more complex commands, these researchers have combined thought pattern mapping for diverse and complex mental exercises with head motion sensors, adding many degrees of freedom to the command interface.\u00a0 We can only assume that with research on both the EEG and autonomous vehicle fronts moving forward, it won\u2019t be terribly long before thought-controlled wheelchairs are commonplace amongst the American public.\u00a0 Jetpacks or no jetpacks, the future is here, and I for one am ecstatic about the technological possibilities it promises!<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.bu.edu%2Fombs%2F2011%2F04%2F06%2Fhey-scientists-where%25E2%2580%2599s-my-jetpack-the-future-is-here-it-just-looks-a-little-different-than-expected%2F&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=true&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;font&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;height=80\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none;overflow:hidden;width:450px;height:80px\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/autonomos-labs.de\/\">The AutoNOMOs Project<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.emotiv.com\/\">Emotiv<\/a>&#8211; Brain Computer Interface Technology<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ted.com\/talks\/tan_le_a_headset_that_reads_your_brainwaves.html\"> Tan Le: A headset that reads your brainwaves<\/a> &#8211; Videos on TED.com<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wired.com\/medtech\/health\/news\/2007\/01\/72580\">A wheelchair that reads your mind<\/a>-Wired.com<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wired.com\/autopia\/2011\/03\/braindriver-thought-control-car\/\">Thinking your way through traffic in a brain-controlled car<\/a>-Autopia-Wired.com<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/18002513\">Craig DA, Nguyen HT. \u201cAdaptive EEG Thought Pattern Classi\ufb01er for Advanced Wheelchair Control.\u201d 2007 Annal International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Vols 1-16 : 2544-2547 2007<a>-PubMed<br \/>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-4732900598418038\";\n\/* Blog Post Unit *\/\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"3197496261\";\ngoogle_ad_width = 468;\ngoogle_ad_height = 60;\n\/\/-->\n<\/script><br \/>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\n<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In almost every major futuristic science-fiction work of the last century, jetpacks and flying cars are seemingly as ubiquitous as today\u2019s oversized SUV\u2019s, lining the closets and garages of every hardworking American.\u00a0 Understandably, in the year 2011, this has lead many disenchanted Trekkies and purveyors of assorted geek cultures to ask, \u201cWell, scientists, where\u2019s my [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2463,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[589,591],"tags":[655,664,748,766,776,962,1364,1056,1128],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2480"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2463"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2480\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}