Communications through power of thought to become reality soon

Chennai:

Communications through power of thought could soon become a reality as global scientists are trying to unravel the secrets of how the human grey matter works.

During the The Wheatstone Lecture organized by The Institute and Engineering and Technology here on Friday, Warwick University Professor Christopher J James displayed that brain to brain communication could be a reality soon.

Talking about his research, the British university professor said the technique brain computer interfacing to capture brain signals and translate them into commands that allow humans to control devices using their thoughts.

Interestingly, the experiments that were conducted on his son and daughter using BCI were shown but the scientist said that it was conducted just to prove that it is possible to communicate thoughts.

BCI can be used for capturing brain signals and translating them into commands that allow humans to control (just by thinking) devices such as computers, robots, rehabilitation technology and virtual reality environments, he said.

 Whilst BCI is no longer a new thing and person-to-person communication via the nervous system has been shown in the past, this is the first time we are starting to see true brain-to-brain interfacing being demonstrated, he said.

The full implications of this are yet to be understood but there are some scenarios where brain-to-brain communication could be of huge benefit such as intelligence and gaming.

But then the technology is at a nascent stage. And the biggest challenge is how scientist are going to make it a reality. Is it possible to have a electrode implanted in the brain. Is it ethical to have such technology and is it possible to use such technology.

he IET () organises,. In the lecture, Professor James  will introduce Brain Computing Interfacing (BCI) and the field of neural engineering in general, as well as how Brain-to-brain (B2B) communication has been possible and enacted in the experiment, which was conducted with an aim of expanding the current limits of the Brain Computer interfacing technology.

The Wheatstone Lecture commemorates the life and work of Sir Charles Wheatstone (1802 - 1875), whose contributions to British science and engineering included work on the Cooke-Wheatstone Telegraph and the Wheatstone Bridge.