Tech Shout!

Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (”ATR”) and Honda Research Institute Japan Co. Ltd. (”HRI”) have collaboratively developed a new “Brain Machine Interface” (”BMI”) for manipulating robots using brain activity signals. This new BMI technology has enabled the decoding of natural brain activity and the use of the extracted data for the near real-time operation of a robot without an invasive incision of the head and brain. This breakthrough facilitates greater possibilities for new types of interface between machines and the human brain.

HRI and ATR took it a step further by developing the theory into a system for robotic control. The subject in an MRI scanner makes a finger gesture, “paper,” “rock” or “scissors,” while the changes in his/her homodynamic responses associated with brain activity are monitored every second. Specific signals generating paper-rock-scissors movements are extracted and decoded by a computer program, and the decoded information is transferred to a hand-shaped robot to simulate the original movement performed by the subject.

The technology is based on an article called “Decoding the perceptual and subjective contents of the human brain,” published by Dr. Yukiyasu Kamitani, a researcher at ATR. Dr. Kamitani and his collaborator Dr. Frank Tong were named among 50 Research Leaders in Scientific American, the science journal.

Eventually, the technology could be used for typing, assisting people with disabilities and improving car safety.