Controlling Computer
by thoughts
Presented by:
Arun Batra
Contents

Cognitive engineering
 Brain computer interface
 EFG (electroencephalograph) signals
 Boom for handicapped
 Neural networks
Cognitive engineering
Controlling computers by human thought was science
fiction , but it’s rapidly becoming science fact.Now
researchers have succeeded in tapping directly into
thoughts,by implanting tiny electrodes into the brain.
It’s called cognitive engineering , and it’s mindblowing.
Neurosurgeon Roy Bakay and his team at Emory
University in Atlanta , Georgia have developed a brain
implant that can monitor extremely small scale activity
in the brain’s motor area.
Continued…
The patient subsequently undergoes a training
programme using biofeedback. The electrical
activity recorded by the implant controls the sound
of a buzzer ,and the patient gradually learns which
thought make the buzzer sound louder and faster.
Two patients have received Bakay’s implants:
One who suffered from a fatal degenerative motor
neuron disease.
Second is a old stroke victim paralysed from the
neck down.
Boom For Disabled
IT for blind:
Computer programs and devices are available
to allow the blind to input text using Braille
keys on an otherwise regular keyboard.
IT for physically challenged:
Computers can prove to be quite helpful to
those with physical disabilities.
Head Tracking system:
It allows the people to operate a PC using only
his head movements.
Continued…
Eye Tracking system:
This device allows a physically challenged person to
operate a PC using only his or her eye movements.
Foot mouse:
It allows a person to move the cursor using his
feet.Users can have complete control of the cursor
without having to take their hands off the keyboard
or eyes off the monitor.
IT for hearing impaired:
Persons can learn through sight what the ear cannot
hear .
GIVE IT A THOUGHT-AND
MAKE IT SO
Glancing at a stereo and turning it on with a thought may
have once been science fiction,but inside a virtual world
people are listening to music by simple wishing it so .
Several teams around the world are working on braincomputer-interface,computer science student Jessica
Bayliss is the first to show that detection of brain’s weak
electrical signals is possible in a busy environment filled
with activity,but now the team is confident to bring this
technology to a real world.
BCI(Brain computer
interface)
BCI groups are close to overcome another obstacle-that
of attaching the sensors to the head.Dozens of electrode
must be attached to the scalp.
BCI are divided into two categories:
Biofeedback
Stimulus – response
*Biofeedback is a method where a person learns to
control some aspect of his or her body,such as
relaxing,and the resulting change in the brain can be
detected.
*Stimulus-response means thinking from mind and gets
the immediate response.
BCI(Brain computer interface)
contd...
*Bayliss and Ballard work in the university’s National Resource
Laboratory for the study of Brain and Behaviour , which brings
together computer scientists,cognitive scientists,visual scientists
and neurologists to study neural functions in complex
settings.The research combines tools that mimic real world
sensations with sensory trackers that measure eye,head and
finger movements.
*Anything you can do with your brain can be done a lot
faster,cheaper and easier with a finger and remote control.
FLEABITE – A TRIFFLING
TROUBLE
*It is principally concerns an expansion or enhancing of
the powers of the mind.
*It allow human beings to tackle even more difficult
problems.
*In order to type text into the computer one has to will
fingers to move over the keyboard in order to get the
text appear on the screen. Now neuroscience have made
the possibility of ‘getting to grips’ with the world by
using thought alone a reality.
Technological Approaches
Problems:
A volunteer sitting in a chair would have twelve electrodes
attached to his scalp.Because any movement,even blinking or
looking at the scenery,would generate a brain signal ten times
larger then the one researchers were trying to detect.It needs to
take so many readings.Ideally,a person would want to think
the letter a only once and have it recognized.
Ten hours are required to communicate one vowel.]
IMPROVEMENTS:
BBC reported by German scientists “Patients can write on the
screen at a rate of one letter every six seconds,and by using
letters to represent key-words that rate can be speeded up
enormously.
CONTD…
In encephalic approaches electrodes relay transmitter is
then worn outside the skin to detect are inserted into the
brain to detect the firings of specific neurons . These are
then connected to a minute transmitter housed beneath the
skin.Another and amplify the signal of the inner transmitter
and to pass that signal on to the computer.
This technology is very advantageous and have benefits
over several different approaches.
CONTD…
Advantages over epicephalic approaches:
Firstly,the user’s higher level conscious processes
are not interfered with as much in the process of
getting the cursor to move,so there is less interruption
of trains of thought.
Secondly,since it is only one or two neurons that are
hooked up to generate known typical movements,in
theory the user can move to one program to another
and make a move left through request that will be
interpreted.
FACT:
“Johnay Ray ,a 53-year-old paralyzed stroke victim at the
Veterans Administration Hospital in Decatur became the first
human to communicate via a computer controlled only by his
brain power.”
•These ideas haven’t only attracted the attention of other
doctor’s for alleviating the distress of disabled individuals.
•These technologies have not escaped the imaginations of the
military and space exploration establishments.
•Bringing freedom to the paralyzed,and specialized power to
fighter pilots for the next few years.
Neural Networks
DEFINITION:
An artificial neural network(ANN) is an information
processing paradigm that is inspired by the way biological
nervous systems such as the brain,process information.The
key element is the novel structure of the information
processing system.It is composed of large number of highly
interconnected processing elements (neurons) working to
solve specific problems.
ANN is configured for a specific application,such as pattern
recognition or data classification,through a learning
process.It involves adjustments to connections that exist
between the neurons.
Why use Neural networks???
Neural networks with their ability to derive meaning from
complicated or imprecise data,can be used to extract patterns
and detect trends that are too complex to be noticed by either
humans or other computer techniques.
*Other advantages include:
Adaptive learning
Self-Organization
Real Time Operation
Fault Tolerance
Neural networks versus
Conventional computers
Conventional computers use an algorithmic approach
i.e. the computer follows a set of instructions in order
to solve a problem.These type of computers would be
much more useful if they could do things that we don’t
know exactly how to do.
Neural networks process information in a similar way
as brain does.The network is composed of large number
of highly interconnected processing elements working
in parallel to solve a specific problem.
Neural networks cannot be programmed to perform a
particular task.
Disadvantages of Neural
networks
In this networks find out how to solve the problem by
itself , it’s operation can be unpredictable.
Conventional computers use a cognitive approach to
problem solving ,the way the problem is to be solved must
be known and stated in small unambiguous instructions.
These instructions then further converted to a high level
language program and then into machine code that the
computer can understand and results are totally
predictable.
Neural networks and conventional computers both are
complement of each other.
How the human brain
learns???
The Synapse
The synapse
A Simple Neuron
 The first artificial neuron was produced in
1943 by the neurophysiologist Warren Mc
Culloch and the logician Walter Pits.
 Neural networks do not perform miracles .
But if used sensibly they can produce some
amazing results.
CONCLUSION:
All the current experiments associate brain responses with
one or more of the five senses.Most often vision for
stimulating subjects.Presently it is a major challenge for
computers to recognize even simple commands like ‘left’
or ‘right’.The main hurdle we face is the lack of
understanding of the connection between any particular
thought and the corresponding voltages emitted by our
brain cells.Complete human to brain computer
interaction,thus,still has to resolve many more glitches
before it can hope to make science fiction a reality.