August 2014 – Alliance Digital Entertainment

Piloting Planes With Mind Control

…engineers developed an algorithm that can convert brain waves into flight commands. The researchers hope the mind-controlled system paired with specialized airplane controls will make flying easier and safer in the future…

MindScans director, Ben Chiu, who is also a pilot and flight instructor, says, “flying is on of the most difficult things that humans do,” and believes anything that makes that task easier will make it safer. As a pilot myself, I agree, but I’d never wear a hat like that no matter how safe it is!

– Vic

Brain-Inspired IBM Chip Puts Traditional Computers To Shame

Crossing a traditional computer with a biological one, the brain, is no easy task but researchers at IBM have been hard at work doing just that. On Thursday they announced the results of 10 years of research and $53 million in DARPA funding. The company’s new brain-inspired chip achieves unparalleled levels of power and efficiency, and IBM claims it may change the fundamental methods of computing.

The latest chip boasts more than 5 billion transistors, putting it in supercomputer-on-a-chip territory, but that’s not the impressive part those transistors are organized into 4,096 “neurosynaptic cores,” on which are more than a million simulated “neurons” and 256 million “synapses.” IBM’s chip, you see, is an attempt to replicate the brain’s style of processing information…