Pinktentacle translates a cyborg project from Asahi into English for those of us who aren’t blessed with the ability to read Hiragana/Katakana…and what they’ve dug up is astonishing! Japanese researchers have been implanting electrodes for monitoring activities directly into subjects brains. Researchers have already applied with ethics committees to begin robotic testing and expect to have great success. Resistance is futile.

The researchers, who have filed a license application with the Osaka University Hospital ethics board, are working to enlist willing subjects already scheduled to have brain electrodes implanted for the purpose of monitoring epilepsy or other conditions. The procedure, which does not involve puncturing the cortex, places an electrode sheet at the central sulcus, a fold across the center of the brain near the primary motor cortex (which is responsible for planning and executing movements).

To date, the researchers have worked with four test subjects to record brain wave activity generated as they move their arms, elbows and fingers. Working with Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR), the researchers have developed a method for analyzing the brain waves to determine the subject’s intended activity to an accuracy of greater than 80%. The next step is to use the data to control robot arms developed by the University of Tokyo’s Department of Precision Engineering.