Erik Sofge, Contributing Writer, Popular Mechanics

For Future of Mind Control, Robot-Monkey Trials Are Just a Start

July 8, 2008 at 12:00 am PT

The Force, it appears, may be with us sooner than expected. A study in the journal Nature this spring all but confirmed the latest evolution in the hard-charging, heady field of cybernetics: Monkeys can control machines with their brains. In the experiment, conducted by neuroscientists at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, a pair of macaque monkeys with electrodes implanted in their brains were able to quickly learn how to operate a robot arm as though it were their own, successfully feeding themselves more than half the time.

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Tagged with: Carnegie Mellon University, cybernetics, Erik Sofge, Nature, Popular Mechanics, University of Pittsburgh

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