Researchers at the University of Minnesota (USA) have developed a brain-computer interface that allows controlling the flight of a helicopter using only thought. The research will help people with disabilities or neurological problems to increase their independence.
The system uses a special cap with 64 sensors and cables that detects brain waves (EEG) and translates them into specific movement orders. A computer processes the orders to control the movements of a small helicopter, with which it communicates via WiFi, and which in real life could be replaced by artificial arms and legs or by wheelchairs, among other devices. "The important thing is that we are moving it in three dimensions, up and down, to the right and to the left," explains Karl LeFleur, who has participated in its development. Indeed, the tests carried out by its creators in a large gymnasium show that it is possible to control the take-off, the ascent, the turns, the descents and all the movements of the apparatus without moving a single finger .
As the creators of the contraption explain in the Journal of Neural Engineering , the interface works thanks to the knowledge that neuroscientists have recently acquired about the "geography" of the motor cortex, that is, the area of the brain that controls movements. When we move, or simply when we think about a movement without actually executing it, the neurons in this region produce small electrical currents that can be recorded using electrodes.
