Neurotech & Robotics

Mind Hacks has alerted us to some amazing engineering from Harvard University: A team from Harvard Medical School are interested in how smoked marijuana affects the brain, but have come to the inevitable conclusion that it's actually quite hard smoking a joint when you're lying on your back being brain scanned. So the research team put their heads together (!), and realised they needed to design a bong - a water pipe for smoking marijuana - safe to use in an MRI scanner. This isn't a trivial task. Apart from being free of metal parts that could be affected by the MRI scanner's strong magnet,…

A group funded by the Royal College of art has created an ice cream dispenser named Dr. Whippy. The good doctor will dispense a prescription for ice cream if you sound sufficiently miserable. It is based on a voice-stress analysis of various answers to questions it asks. Check it out, the more miserable you are the more ice cream it dispenses: I would have given everyone the same amount of ice cream but inserted different amounts of Prozac. But hey - thats just me! -via boingboing-

Head over to Mind Hacks for more MRI madness! There you will read about the many examples of all the stupid shit people brought into the room with a big freakin' magnet and ended up flying across the room (and sometimes tragically killing someone). Here at Omni Brain we figured we'd just give you the great B movie about MRI safety. Wow is that bad!

Growing up I used to read Omni magazine and would always see all sorts of devices that supposedly could induce lucid dreams or tapes that had subliminal messages recorded along with Bach to create special brain states where you'd be particularly receptive to messages like - "you will be psychic... you can lift objects with your mind...you will be rich and successful... you will quit smoking crack...etc etc etc" Let me tell you - I'm not psychic or rich! Although...I never did take up smoking crack so maybe the tapes did work! I eventually forgot about these tapes and devices for many years…

Ok... not really at home (Are they really suggesting in the picture that you can do it yourself?). There are now some relatively simple consumer devices on the market that will let your Psychiatrist wave his magic wand over your head, helping to alleviate your depressive symptoms in his office without checking you into a hospital and knocking you out. I'm curious whether they need an MRI before doing this procedure? It doesn't look like it's too precise. In any case... here's the device: And a description from Engadget: The devices employ a technique known as transcranial magnetic…

The first story is from Wired and focusses on the use of neuroscience techniques (fMRI, EEG, etc.) to help soldiers be more effective killers. Since 2000, Darpa, the Pentagon's blue-sky research arm, has spearheaded a far-flung, nearly $70 million effort to build prototype cockpits, missile control stations and infantry trainers that can sense what's occupying their operators' attention, and adjust how they present information, accordingly. Similar technologies are being employed to help intelligence analysts find targets easier by tapping their unconscious reactions. It's all part of a…

Sometimes when I'm futzing around the web looking for interesting pieces of news a theme just seems to pop out at me. Today it happens to be the over reliance and distractions of technology. The first story is an old one... The elderly German motorist set out sans a clue of what route(s) he'd be taking to reach his destination, but obviously felt that his trusty navigation unit knew far more about the highways and byways than he did. After blatantly ignoring a prominent "closed for construction" sign, he threw common sense to the wind and put that 4MATIC system to good use by wheeling over…

There are all sorts of remote control rodents and cockroaches out there now - but I guess they've stepped it up a notch and created a remote control flying rodent cockroach hybrid (also known as the common pigeon). Now, not only can they control in which direction the pigeon flies, they can also control when it releases its little whitish projectile. Researchers say they are working on a laser guided shit release system and hope to have it installed in the next version of the robotic mind controlled shitting pigeon machine. Scientists in eastern China say they have succeeded in controlling…

An interesting youtube video from the Discovery Channel featuring the research of Chance Spalding. The video features a monkey who can control a robotic arm with the implanted electrodes in its brain. via boingboing

Pretty cool!

Here's a working brain - mine. I took it out of my skull and recorded it. Produced, Written, Filmed, Edited, and Directed by me! I should go into Hollywood! Isn't it the most amazing movie you've ever seen?!?!

Check out this new pilot from PBS. You can watch the episode next Wednesday on TV or you can see it right now right here. If you want this program to continue show your support by watching and sending your love to the website :) Here is their press release: 22nd Century "World Wide Mind" Wednesday, January 17, 2007 8:00 p.m. EST Ever wonder what the world is going to be like in the future? Will human life spans increase to 250 years or more? Will your personal computer become smarter than you? Will machines shrink so small they can make repairs inside a human cell? 22nd Century is an…

After a previous post about mind control devices I received an interesting email from Catherine Heywood of the British Mind Control Network. It's a shame that "The British Mind Control Network (BMCN) is an online resource at present but hopes to become so within the next three years" I'm sure there would be some pretty interesting reading on that site to say the least. Get that website up Catherine! In any case, it seems that there is some serious mind control going on in Britain and elsewhere ;) See below the fold for some details - and the document I received. The British are…