Chinese researchers from Nankai University have successfully created technology that allows you to control a car with your brain. A headset containing 16 sensors can read the electroencephalography (EEG) signals in your brain and transfer that information to a computer program. The program then identifies the signals associated with a given command and translates that information into a movement command that it sends to the car.

Currently, the technology allows you to drive the car forward, reverse, apply the brakes, and lock and unlock the doors. The car itself was created by University researchers in collaboration with the Chinese car company Great Wall Motors.

The project, which began two years ago, initially sought to help people with disabilities operate an automobile. Now that a working prototype has been built, Nankai University researchers say that they hope the technology can also be integrated with self-driving cars. Combining the two technologies would give the driver easy access to some features and a way to quickly take control of the car if need be, though in a way that's less precise and more uncanny than just grabbing a wheel.

"Driverless cars' further development can bring more benefits to us, since we can better realize functions relating to brain controlling with the help of the driverless cars' platform," lead researcher, Duan Feng, told Reuters. "In the end, cars, whether driverless or not, and machines are serving for people. Under such circumstances, people's intentions must be recognized. In our project, it makes the cars better serve human beings."

McLaren hopes to develop an electric, solar-powered car that you can drive with your brain one day, and Nankai University's work suddenly makes that dream seem a little less far-fetched. There are no plans to put the brain-controlled Great Wall Motors SUV into production yet, but the breakthrough in mind-control technology has us itching to get behind the, uh headset.

Source: Reuters

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