May 4, 2013

Controlling robots with your thoughts




This is Angel Perez Garcia. He can make a robot move exactly as he wants via the electrodes attached to his head.

"I use the movements of my eyes, eyebrows and other parts of my face", he says. "With my eyebrows I can select which of the robot's joints I want to move" smiles Angel, who is a Master's student at NTNU.

Facial grimaces generate major electrical activity (EEG signals) across our heads, and the same happens when Angel concentrates on a symbol, such as a flashing light, on a computer monitor. In both cases the electrodes read the activity in the brain. The signals are then interpreted by a processor which in turn sends a message to the robot to make it move in a pre-defined way.