Honda announced the development of the first man-machine controlled by thought, applied to a humanoid robot. This device technology has been developed jointly with the Japanese company Shimadzu based in Tokyo and Research Institute ATR.

The interface is based on two EEG recording (better known as the EEG), which measure electrical activity in the scalp, a powerful computer algorithms and innovative partners to a system near spectroscopy infrared (NIRS) to measure changes in cerebral blood flow. All the user needs to do is wear a helmet equipped with these sensors and imagine one of the four representations corresponding to a predetermined portion of the robot (left hand, right hand, tongue, feet) that will be moving .

In initial tests, thanks to newly developed algorithms, the engineers say that the Honda robot Asimo conducted properly thought the gesture, such as lifting the hand or a foot forward, in 90% of cases. Ultimately, the goal is to control the thinking of “smart objects” based on simple actions like closing a car door, turn the TV or drive a computer mouse …

“We are only at the initial stage, but we cherish the dream of one day that integrate technology into various machines, recognizes, Yasuhisa Arai, director of research institute of Honda.

As noted by the AFP, in Japan, “these systems are designed to assist humans in their daily ungrateful Japanese robots will not wait that orders them out loud to clear the table to save at work: Just thinking about it and they will pass the act. “