>But Rao cautioned this technology only reads certain kinds of simple brain signals, not a person’s thoughts. And it doesn’t give anyone the ability to control your actions against your will.
Both researchers were in the lab wearing highly specialized equipment and under ideal conditions. They also had to obtain and follow a stringent set of international human-subject testing rules to conduct the demonstration.
“I think some people will be unnerved by this because they will overestimate the technology,” Prat said. “There’s no possible way the technology that we have could be used on a person unknowingly or without their willing participation.”
I for one am tired of seeing some exciting advancement come out of research and then having someone pooh-pooh it out of ignorance. Think of the positive places this could go!
My first thought reading it was that some coma patients could finally 'talk' to their loved ones and doctors (e.g., http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1230092/Rom-Houben-P... ).
My second thought was wondering whether we could crowd-source the origin. For example, multiple people sending commands, with the majority command being acted upon. Creepy, but potentially cool (I'm not sure what this says about me.).
My third thought was wondering whether the receiver would develop 'muscle memory' of the actions taken. In other words, could the receiver learn how to do certain movements.
