Portuguese researchers discover the secret of Mind Control

Mind control is the stuff of pure science fiction, but today reading data from your brain has never been more accurate, and that opens the way to, for example, controlling machines.

A recent drone flight from an airfield outside Lisbon may prove to be historic. Its flight was remotely controlled by the pilot’s mind. It’s an impressive result delivered by a European research project to develop technology to transform the lives of disabled people.

“It’s the first time we’ve done a public demonstration of a real flight, that’s completely unprecedented,” says the Tekever Brainflight project’s co-ordinator Ricardo Mendes

Like most drones, the unmanned plane receives radio commands from the ground. But instead of using a joystick and buttons, the pilot just thinks of the direction the plane should take.

“We’re switching from normal control to the “brain flight”. From this moment, it will be flown by the brainwaves of the pilot,” says Mendes.

The researcher at the controls focuses his attention on the screen with the parameters of the flight. It takes some mental effort to steer the drone in the required direction, keeping it within the designated area.

“Ideally, this shouldn’t be too difficult. With more training, we’ll be able to do more, and the piloting should become more intuitive,” says Nuno Loureiro, researcher at the BMI Champalimaud Foundation.

This technology is based on a brain-machine interface – a system that uses a set of electrodes applied to the scalp. Using specially-written software, the researchers can basically read the subject’s mind.

So how does the brain-machine interface actually work?

“We use a cap that captures from the skin surface the electrical activity that goes on inside the brain. We take those signals and transmit them into the computer which converts them into visible cursor movements that you can see on the screen,” says the Foundation’s Rui Costa.

As the pilot observes the screen, his brain learns electrical patterns that control the movements of the objects. Scientists say with more training, this can become as intuitive as driving a car.

“In principle, anyone can learn to do this,” continues Costa, “but it will ultimately depend on the person’s learning capabilities. Not everyone can be a pianist!”

This technology has already been tried in a full-size plane simulator. Researchers suggest that in the future, brain-machine interfaces may help to simplify control panels, shorten pilots’ training time and one day allow paraplegic people to fly planes.

“Besides aeronautics, we’re looking to apply this technology in many different areas: you can imagine right away applying this to wheelchairs, how you control a wheelchair with your mind. Or you can use it to control your everyday appliances at home,” suggests Ricardo Mendes.

From turning the lights on and off to typing emails or controlling prosthetic limbs with brain signals – all that and more can be made possible with further development of the brain-machine technology, which is still in its infancy and surely has more surprises to come.

More information: http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/147263_en.html

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Game of drones: all you need to know before buying one

Equipped with eight propellers, the AscTec Falcon 8 octocopter was built with land surveying in mind.

It is one of the many drones recently presented at the SkyTech exhibition in London.

Weighing in at just over two kilos, it can carry a range of aerial imaging technology, including digital cameras, camcorders and sensors.

“Well, what this allows them to do is get a proper angle on the photograph, rather than having to point up or down and get distortion. So it gives you greater flexibility and it gives you a real-world, very, very easy-to-understand video shot,” said Jon Skelton, Imaging Business Manager for Topcon Europe.

UK-based survey equipment Company SCCS presented one of its latest models, the MultiRotor G4 Surveying Robot. Boasting a flight time of approximately 20 minutes, it can travel around 2.5 to 3 kilometers on a single charge.

“So this drone allows people to fly autonomously, to survey large areas of land without the need for other people. You can get rid of a team of surveyors, fly over and survey up to 250,000 square metres in a day,” said Freddie Sapsed, senior technical representative for SCCS.

Swiss-based company Sensefly presented the mapping capabilities of its eBee drone, creating a high-definition 3D model of the Alps.

It also showed off its eXom , a “bump-safe” drone which uses shock-absorbent carbon fibre rotor guards.

“If you’re going at (high) speed with the eXom, it will bounce, recoil and stabilize itself and you’ll rarely see that with any rotary drone,” says Christopher Thomson, Sales Manager for Sensefly.

With a rapidly rising offer and dropping prices, drones are becoming increasingly affordable and ever-more present in our skies – requiring clearer rules in the future to regulate this growing form of air traffic.

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Robots help stroke victims regain use of arms

Introduced two decades ago for patients with neurological disorders, rehabilitation robotics is now a relatively widespread recovery method for patients.

At the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London, robots are used to help stroke victims regain the use of their arms.

Exoskeletons are attached to computer games specially designed to exercise specific sets of upper body muscles. At least 500 repetitions of a movement are needed to make any lasting change.

“It adds variety to the rehabilitation that they’re receiving which adds interest, and patients need to focus on what they’re doing and they need to concentrate again in order to change to affect plasticity,” says Fran Brander, a clinical physiotherapist at the NHNN in London.

“But it’s not the be all and end all. We couldn’t just buy six robots and have no therapists, or nobody to do the hands-on stuff, because the robot won’t lengthen tight muscles, it won’t know which are the specifically weak muscles that need strengthening.”

Before starting the exercise, the patient’s ability to move his or her arm is fed into the computer. If they are unable to move their arm, the robot moves it for them. If they start to move, the robot provides adjustable levels of assistance to help out, helping the brain and arm to learn to work together again.

“You forget what the arm can do when it hasn’t been used for some time. So they teach you new skills and put you on this upper hand clinic (clinical device) to encourage you to be able to use the right arm again,” explains one patient.

While the introduction of such devices doesn’t mean traditional physiotherapy is no longer needed, it can leave the most repetitive exercises to machines, freeing up more time for other, more complex tasks by humans.

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Will this huge scientific collaboration solve the world's energy problem?

In Cadarache, near Aix en Provence in Southern France, one of the biggest scientific collaborations on the planet is underway.

Thirty four nations representing more than half the world’s population have joined forces in this an ambitious attempt to produce energy using the same process as the sun.

Known as Iter, meaning “the way” in Latin, the international nuclear fusion project is aimed at creating a new kind of reactor capable of producing unlimited supplies of cheap, clean, safe and sustainable electricity from atomic fusion.

It will weigh three times the equivalent of the Eiffel Tower and cover a space the size of 60 football fields.

The idea is to reproduce the fusion process that occurs at the core of our Sun, when hydrogen nuclei collide, fusing into heavier helium atoms and releasing tremendous amounts of energy. In Iter, the fusion reaction will be achieved in a tokamak device that uses magnetic fields to contain and control the plasma, which will be heated to extremely high temperatures.

Iter’s recently appointed director general, Bernard Bigot, strongly believes that this is the answer to our planet’s energy needs.

“The biggest advantage is the fuel used, which is hydrogen,” says Mr. Bigot. “There is a lot of hydrogen in nature. You find it in the sea and in lakes. So we have an endless source of fuel for millions of years to come. Another advantage is the way we will handle the waste: radioactive waste is produced, but its lifespan is very short: just a few hundred years, compared to millions of years in the case of fission.”

Also, according to Bernard Bigot, in the event of a problem, nuclear fusion can be easily interrupted, which is not the case for nuclear fission, where radioactive energy continues to be produced even after the process has been halted.

Before actual assembly work of the nuclear reactor can start, the components must first be assembled virtually by computer. Assembling the components, which come from all over the world, requires extremely precise measurements.

There are also several problems that need to be addressed. For example, Tritium, used for the reaction, is a short-lasting radioactive isotope. If released accidentally, there is no stopping the leak. But, according to Bernard Bigot, dangers are limited for the nearby population.

“In the event of an accident – a leak, for example – the reactor is not leakproof, so the gas matter would leak into nature. The quantities released into nature would allow the population living around the reactor to stay where they are and resume their activities,” he says.

A pipeline is being designed, which would suck in the dangerous tritium released in the event of an accident. Another major problem with the Iter project is its enormous cost. Currently estimated at 16 billion euros, it has trebled since the initial estimations back in 2006.

“The problem is not just the cost, but the quantity of energy which will be produced. And frankly, I believe that, despite the cost, which is indeed very high, the quantity of energy produced over a long, very long period of time, justifies the initial investment,” concludes Bernard Bigot.

It’s hoped Iter’s first supplies of commercially produced energy could start in 2050.

Creating a replica of the Sun’s on Earth – an ambitious dream perhaps, but one these scientists firmly believe in.

For more information about the ITER project:
http://www.iter.org/
http://fusionforenergy.europa.eu/

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Future Food District: putting man back at the heart of the food chain

At the heart of EXPO 2015, the Universal Exhibition currently hosted by Milan, lies the Future Food District.

One of its pavilions functions just like a real supermarket, inviting visitors to purchase items and explore possible scenarios for the application of new technologies at each step of the food chain.

The 1,500 products on display are positioned beneath digital mirrors providing information about their origins, ingredients and manufacturing process. Wall screens tell you everything you need to know about a specific food: its carbon footprint, nutritional value – and even some advice for good recipes.

“This is an experiment that works. Here we sell directly to clients, so our findings are applicable immediately,” says Marco Pedroni, president of Coop Italia, which is working on the project together with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

“Of course, we want to test the different solutions that we present here, for six months, to decide what changes to bring to our distribution system. But I believe the future needs to be accessible to all. It’s not just about technology, it’s about exchange, about a more socially aware economy and mode of consumption, and above all, behaving in a more responsible and sustainable way.”

State-of-the-art robots assist along in the supply chain. But, according to the developers of the concept, the idea is to put man back at the heart of a food chain that is more autonomous and sustainable thanks to the use of new technologies.

The project’s manager, Carlo Ratti of the MIT, says inspiration came from the past, when relationships were formed during the exchange of goods – the production and distribution chain was clearer and consumers knew more about the food they were eating.

The ultimate goal, he says, is to make interaction between consumers and products transparent and honest again thanks to the sharing of information.

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Scientists' breakthrough with artificial spider silk

Spider silk is one of the strongest materials known to man.

A strand just 3 cm thick would be able to stop a speeding train.

But despite huge efforts by scientists to recreate this material, that spiders have been making for millennia, the ability to manufacture silk in a lab has proved illusive.

That is until now, researchers from the University of Bayreuth in Bavaria, Germany say they have created an artificial spider silk as durable as the real thing with the help of bacteria found in the guts of humans and animals.

Professor Thomas Scheibel is leading the team, “The special properties of spiders’ fibres are their enormous toughness” he says. “So it’s a combination of strength and elasticity, which means that a spider silk fibre can take much more energy before it ruptures, in comparison to any other fibre, man-made or natural.”

While artificial silk is not quite as strong as natural spider silk, it is even more elastic. Its toughness – a measure of both strength and elasticity – matches the real stuff. The present fibre prototypes are smooth to the touch and they shine like silk. They are brilliant white and can be dyed with common techniques used in the textile industry. Because of its biocompatability, the silk used in the process could have a variety of uses.

Next up, the team is working on combining mouse cells with the artificial spider silk to create living cells that would develop cardiac muscles, skin or nerve tissue.

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