Be careful what you wish for because your new robot just might hear you and carry out that wish whether you want it done or not!

Honda’s amazing new technology connects thoughts inside a brain with robotics and seems straight out of a weird sci-fi flick.

Better think carefully from now on.

Opening a car trunk or controlling a home air conditioner are specific, easy tasks that can now be accomplished with just the wish to do so.

Asimo, Honda’s new human shaped robot can read wireless commands that are analyzed from thought patterns and emanate from the electric currents on a human scalp as well as changes in the cerebral blood flow. These commands occur when the thought concerns any one of four movements. These include: eating, moving the right hand, running and moving the left hand.

It is not surprising that this innovation should come from Japan, as it has one of the leading robotics industries in the world, but Honda was the first to admit that this technology, while well on its way, was still in a basic research stage because of possible distractions in the person’s thinking and the diversity of brain patterns.

Research on the brain is being tackled around the world, but Honda claims to be far ahead of all the others when it comes to figuring out a way to read brain patterns without having to embed sensors into the skin.

“I’m talking about dreams today. Practical uses are still way into the future. Our products are for people to use. It is important for us to understand human behavior. We think this is the ultimate in making machines move,” said Yasuhisa Arai, executive at Honda Research Institute.

Dreams of the heart, the kind Jiminy Cricket used to tell us occurred whenever we wished upon a star, those are still a bit harder to conjure on command.

(Link)

By MDeeDubroff on 25-04-2009