We’ve been half-joking on this blog for some time for a self-driving car. Well, it looks like Toyota may have met us halfway with a car driven by one’s thoughts.
Really.
Yeah, we know. Sounds science-fictionest. But check out PC World:
The system processes brain thought patterns and can turn them into left, right and forward movements of the wheelchair with a delay as short as one-thousandth of a second. That’s a vast improvement over other systems that can take as long as several seconds to analyze and react to the user’s thoughts.
There’s no talk of any practical application of the technology, including thought-controlled cars. But the article does point out the Japanese keen interest in such technology as its population continues to age. Robots, from housecleaners to animated “walkers” would help such folks.
Why bother with thought-controlled cars when we can develop robot-controlled cars like in Minority Report or the ones DARPA is sponsoring (<a href=”http://www.driv4.com”>Driv4</a>)?