German university builds a thought-controlled car

Is it possible to drive a car without using hands or feet? An experiment carried out at Berlin's Free University has shown that this may indeed be possible, dpa said.

In the experiment a scientist controlled a specially equipped car with the power of his mind at the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin. The university says the scientist managed to accelerate, brake and steer the vehicle. A headphone-like device was used to detect the driver's brainwaves while a computer converted those thoughts into electronic commands that guided the car.

The theory behind the thought-controlled car is not new. Researchers have been working for years on ways to link the human brain directly with a computer. In future the knowledge they gain may be useful in aiding paraplegics who cannot control either their arms or legs but whose minds are fully functioning. Their brains' commands are prevented from being transmitted to their destination by broken nerve cords.

However, at the moment thought-controlled vehicles are solely for research purposes and scientists are not promising any major breakthroughs for the physically handicapped.

The technology behind the idea is complicated. It is easy to detect brainwaves with sensors on the skin but it is very difficult to filter out precise orders from among the "noise" going on inside the human mind.

Many engineers are trying to fine-tune the process but most of them have not gone beyond the basic experimental phase. But researchers at Berlin's Institute of Technology have shown that it is possible to play pinball by thought alone.

The IT experts at the Free University have been conducting complicated experiments with cars for a long time. They have succeeded in controlling vehicles with the human eye or with a mobile phone but they say using sensors attached to the surface of the skin is breaking new ground.

A test driver and computer have been specially "trained" for the task. During the initial test phase the driver thought about a cube moving in different directions so the scientists could measure the brain's activity-pattern. Four different cube movements were then linked with four driving commands such as "turn left" or "accelerate."

The computer then "learned" to interpret the messages the driver's brain was sending out and link them with a command for the car. The scientists then linked the car's steering wheel, accelerator and brakes electronically with the device measuring the driver's brain activity. However, the researchers say they are still a very long way off from using this technology on the open road.