Honda Research Institute Japan Co. Ltd, Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International and Shimadzu Corporation have jointly developed what they call the World’s first Brain Machine Interface. What does it do? Well, you can control your robot with the help of your thoughts! The technology used is the electroencephalography and near-infrared spectroscopy along with newly developed information extraction technology. It does not even require any physical movements such as pressing buttons. This technology will be further developed for the application to human-friendly products in the future by integrating it with intelligent technologies and robotic technologies. The BMI technology was introduced in the year 2006 and used a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner to measure brain activities. The newly developed measuring device uses EEG and NIRS sensors and it can be transported to and used in various locations.

This is how it works. First the EEG and NIRS sensors are placed on the head of the user. Then one of four pre-determined body part options is provided to the user. The user will imagine moving a part of the body without making any physical movement. Changes in both the brain waves and cerebral blood flow triggered by the brain activity will be measured simultaneously. This data is then analyzed on a real-time basis to see what the user imagined. After receiving the result, the robot makes the corresponding movements like moving an arm or leg. It has been able to achieve the world’s highest accuracy rate of 90% in the tests.

Test procedures for experiments with the new BMI

[Honda]