[opendtv] Sony patent takes first step towards real-life Matrix
- From: DISMO@xxxxxxx
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 8 Apr 2005 12:01:01 EDT
NewScientist.com
Sony patent takes first step towards real-life Matrix
07 April 2005
Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition
Jenny Hogan
Barry Fox
IMAGINE movies and computer games in which you get to smell, taste and
perhaps even feel things. That's the tantalising prospect raised by a patent on
a
device for transmitting sensory data directly into the human brain - granted to
none other than the entertainment giant Sony.
The technique suggested in the patent is entirely non-invasive. It describes
a device that fires pulses of ultrasound at the head to modify firing patterns
in targeted parts of the brain, creating "sensory experiences" ranging from
moving images to tastes and sounds. This could give blind or deaf people the
chance to see or hear, the patent claims.
While brain implants are becoming increasingly sophisticated, the only
non-invasive ways of manipulating the brain remain crude. A technique known as
transcranial magnetic stimulation can activate nerves by using rapidly changing
magnetic fields to induce currents in brain tissue. However, magnetic fields
cannot be finely focused on small groups of brain cells, whereas ultrasound
could
be.
If the method described by Sony really does work, it could have all sorts of
uses in research and medicine, even if it is not capable of evoking sensory
experiences detailed enough for the entertainment purposes envisaged in the
patent.
Details are sparse, and Sony declined New Scientist's request for an
interview with the inventor, who is based in its offices in San Diego,
California.
However, independent experts are not dismissing the idea out of hand. "I looked
at it and found it plausible," says Niels Birbaumer, a pioneering
neuroscientist at the University of Tübingen in Germany who has created devices
that let
people control devices via brain waves.
The application contains references to two scientific papers presenting
research that could underpin the device. One, in an echo of Galvani's classic
18th-century experiments on frogs' legs that proved electricity can trigger
nerve
impulses, showed that certain kinds of ultrasound pulses can affect the
excitability of nerves from a frog's leg. The author, Richard Mihran of the
University of Colorado, Boulder, had no knowledge of the patent until New
Scientist
contacted him, but says he would be concerned about the proposed method's
long-term safety.
Sony first submitted a patent application for the ultrasound method in 2000,
which was granted in March 2003. Since then Sony has filed a series of
continuations, most recently in December 2004 (US 2004/267118).
Elizabeth Boukis, spokeswoman for Sony Electronics, says the work is
speculative. "There were not any experiments done," she says. "This particular
patent
was a prophetic invention. It was based on an inspiration that this may
someday be the direction that technology will take us."
Related Articles
· Monkey's brain signals control 'third arm'
· http://article.ns/?id=dn4262
· 13 October 2003
· World's first brain prosthesis revealed
· http://article.ns/?id=dn3488
· 12 March 2003
· Power of thought
· http://article.ns/?id=dn159
· 09 November 2000
Weblinks
· Sony Electronics
· http://www.sony.com/
· Biomedical Engineering, University of
Colorado
·
http://ece-www.colorado.edu/research/groupsareas/Bioeng_Research.html
· Institute of Medical Psychology and
Behavioural Neurobiology, University of Tübingen
· http://www.mp.uni-tuebingen.de/mp/
Return to article
Printed on Fri Apr 08 04:51:46 BST 2005
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:
- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at
FreeLists.org
- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word
unsubscribe in the subject line.
Other related posts:
- » [opendtv] Sony patent takes first step towards real-life Matrix
