If trusting your commute to aself - drive carseems a little too hands - off for you , you may not wish the new car developed by a enquiry team at Nankai University . By fag out equipment that read electrical signals given off by the machine driver ’s brain , they are plain able-bodied to move the vehicle using only the tycoon of thought , as report by theWashington Post .
After just two years of development , the group of Chinese scientists take that its headset machine countenance the driver to move the car around , pasture brake , and lock and unlock the doors , all without moving a arm . Although mind - reading technologyisn’t really fresh , this is the first time it has been put to use drive a railcar .
The headset consists of 16 sensors that bewitch electroencephalogram ( EEG ) sign , the kind sire automatically by the brain . When a opinion is generate , billions of neurons within the psyche “ fervor , ” sending electrochemical signaling to each other through synaptic connection . Electrically excited particles ( ion ) that are exchange between the nerve cell move in waves throughout the brain . finally , some of these ions will reach the scalp , wherein they will push against the headset ’s electrode .
The research team has managed to determine what type of brain activity correlates to what type of movement statement . “ The tester ’s EEG signals are picked up by this equipment and conduct wirelessly to the computer , ” Zhang Zhao , a project member , tell theWashington Post . “ The computer sue the signals to categorise and recognize people ’s intent , then translate them into control control to the car . ”
If at this point you may be entertaining the notion that crushing dealings stroke could be triggered by distract , daydreaming drivers , fret not : the inquiry squad claim that the driver would only need to concentrate when doing something like turning , or vary lane . In fact , the mind - controlled car at present canonly labour forwards or backwards – it ca n’t plow at all . So if you ’re planning on driving in a square line for your intact journey , this is the car for you .
Although passably blemished , then , the task does have noble intentions : It was designed with handicapped masses , particularly paraplegics , in mind . The labor is led by Duan Feng , an associate prof in the university ’s College of Computer and Control Engineering ; he exact that this type of mind - reading architecture could eventually be combined with the technology behind the self - drive carpioneered by Google .
At present , however , there are no plan to mass produce this challenging collaborationism between the university and the Great Wall Motor car caller .
