Invention may send sensory information into the brain

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Dooey Jo
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Invention may send sensory information into the brain

Post by Dooey Jo »

From Reuters
The article wrote: Sony Invention Beams Sights, Sounds Into Brain

LONDON (Reuters) - If you think video games are engrossing now, just wait: PlayStation maker Sony Corp. has been granted a patent for beaming sensory information directly into the brain.

The technique could one day be used to create videogames in which you can smell, taste, and touch, or to help people who are blind or deaf.

The U.S. patent, granted to Sony researcher Thomas Dawson, describes a technique for aiming ultrasonic pulses at specific areas of the brain to induce "sensory experiences" such as smells, sounds and images.

"The pulsed ultrasonic signal alters the neural timing in the cortex," the patent states. "No invasive surgery is needed to assist a person, such as a blind person, to view live and/or recorded images or hear sounds."

According to New Scientist magazine, the first to report on the patent, Sony's technique could be an improvement over an existing non-surgical method known as transcranial magnetic stimulation. This activates nerves using rapidly changing magnetic fields, but cannot be focused on small groups of brain cells.

Niels Birbaumer, a neuroscientist at the University of Tuebingen in Germany, told New Scientist he had looked at the Sony patent and "found it plausible." Birbaumer himself has developed a device that enables disabled people to communicate by reading their brain waves.

A Sony Electronics spokeswoman told the magazine that no experiments had been conducted, and that the patent "was based on an inspiration that this may someday be the direction that technology will take us."
Somehow found it while looking for music from the old NES game Cobra Triangle...

This could be very cool, just imagine the games you could make! Though I don't think I'd want to be the first one to try it. Those ultrasonic pulses sound pretty nasty (no pun intended. Honest!)
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Post by General Zod »

screw the games. interactive pr0n, here we come!
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Post by Petrosjko »

And so it may be coming.

Be interesting to see how the societal reprecussions of such technology play out if this does come to pass.
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Post by Dooey Jo »

It will probably cause youngsters to behave immoral and violent, just like the radio did! Well, you can at least count on that there'll be people claiming just that...
Darth_Zod wrote:screw the games. interactive pr0n, here we come!
That was sort of the games I had in mind :twisted:
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Post by wolveraptor »

I read a book about something like this once. In a post-apocalyptic future world, the peoples of the badlands, the ruins outside civilization are addicted to a form of virtual reality in which one sticks some doohickey into the brain and experiences a certain event in real-time. There are people who, using forms of this device which continually loop, are so addicted that they refuse to snap back to the harsh reality of their world, and starve and die that way.

The scary part is, i could see something like that happening today.
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Post by tumbletom »

Darth_Zod wrote:screw the games. interactive pr0n, here we come!
Lol exactly my thoughts.... :twisted:
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Post by Petrosjko »

Dooey Jo wrote:It will probably cause youngsters to behave immoral and violent, just like the radio did! Well, you can at least count on that there'll be people claiming just that...
Darth_Zod wrote:screw the games. interactive pr0n, here we come!
That was sort of the games I had in mind :twisted:
My concern would be the rise of a 'Why bother with the hassle of relationships when you can get a virtual fuck any time you want' attitude.
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Post by Shinova »

unbeataBULL wrote:I read a book about something like this once. In a post-apocalyptic future world, the peoples of the badlands, the ruins outside civilization are addicted to a form of virtual reality in which one sticks some doohickey into the brain and experiences a certain event in real-time. There are people who, using forms of this device which continually loop, are so addicted that they refuse to snap back to the harsh reality of their world, and starve and die that way.

The scary part is, i could see something like that happening today.

It'd be like Evercrack, only worse. :P
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Post by Nephtys »

http://everquest2.station.sony.com/pizza/

We've already got this. If modern gaming is addictive enough to somehow make reaching the phone a chore... I've lost faith in humanity. What's next?

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Post by Queeb Salaron »

This is just... I mean... can I just... for the love of... wow.

I fucking love technology. :)
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Post by Lancer »

Petrosjko wrote:
Dooey Jo wrote:It will probably cause youngsters to behave immoral and violent, just like the radio did! Well, you can at least count on that there'll be people claiming just that...
Darth_Zod wrote:screw the games. interactive pr0n, here we come!
That was sort of the games I had in mind :twisted:
My concern would be the rise of a 'Why bother with the hassle of relationships when you can get a virtual fuck any time you want' attitude.
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Post by Darth Yoshi »

Dooey Jo wrote:It will probably cause youngsters to behave immoral and violent, just like the radio did! Well, you can at least count on that there'll be people claiming just that...
Darth_Zod wrote:screw the games. interactive pr0n, here we come!
That was sort of the games I had in mind :twisted:
There always are those kinds of people. But a pain function should take care of that. No one likes pain. Except of masochists.
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Post by xtashinatorx »

That's really cool in one sense and really freaky in another. It'd be great to have and It really is an awesome idea. However, it almost completely replaces reality. I don't know if I'm comfortable with it yet.
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Post by Queeb Salaron »

xtashinatorx wrote:That's really cool in one sense and really freaky in another. It'd be great to have and It really is an awesome idea. However, it almost completely replaces reality. I don't know if I'm comfortable with it yet.
Reality? Fuck reality. If I can get my jollies from a box without doing a damned thing, sign me the fuck up.

I can see it now: Writing for an online magazine with my wireless voice-recognition software, my hands occupied with a video game controller as I tear apart entire cities in a GTA-style rampage game, all the while getting a virtual hummer courtesy of a little black box in the corner of my room that sends "blowjob" signals to the pleasure receptors in my brain.

First the prospect of pet dinosaurs, then boob implants via stem cell tissue reproduction, and now this? The world is getting better every day.

I fucking love science.
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Post by wolveraptor »

Enticing, but are you telling me you aren't worried in the slightest about the real-world becoming forgotten? It isn't just the laughing Fred Phelps scary, or Michael Jackson scary, it's really, as in seriously, scary.
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Post by Queeb Salaron »

unbeataBULL wrote:Enticing, but are you telling me you aren't worried in the slightest about the real-world becoming forgotten? It isn't just the laughing Fred Phelps scary, or Michael Jackson scary, it's really, as in seriously, scary.
The "real world" is already forgotten, man. When was the last time you killed your own dinner? I'll tell you when the last time I did it was: Not once.

Sure, I'm afraid that dating will consist of "Meet you in a private virtual chat in 5 minutes!" but beyond that, people will always have the option of not succumbing to -- or selectively succumbing to -- technological advancements.

And for the record, I don't even own an Ipod.
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Post by xtashinatorx »

Queeb Salaron wrote: Reality? Fuck reality. If I can get my jollies from a box without doing a damned thing, sign me the fuck up.

I can see it now: Writing for an online magazine with my wireless voice-recognition software, my hands occupied with a video game controller as I tear apart entire cities in a GTA-style rampage game, all the while getting a virtual hummer courtesy of a little black box in the corner of my room that sends "blowjob" signals to the pleasure receptors in my brain.

First the prospect of pet dinosaurs, then boob implants via stem cell tissue reproduction, and now this? The world is getting better every day.

I fucking love science.
Yeah and it will probably give you a damn seizure.
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Post by Lancer »

Darth Yoshi wrote:
Dooey Jo wrote:It will probably cause youngsters to behave immoral and violent, just like the radio did! Well, you can at least count on that there'll be people claiming just that...
Darth_Zod wrote:screw the games. interactive pr0n, here we come!
That was sort of the games I had in mind :twisted:
There always are those kinds of people. But a pain function should take care of that. No one likes pain. Except of masochists.
and FPS-realism freaks.

Back on topic: imagine an interactive action movie where your the star! You get the guns and the girl!
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Post by Queeb Salaron »

xtashinatorx wrote:Yeah and it will probably give you a damn seizure.
Maybe. But I'll die with a smile on my face. ;)
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Post by Predator »

I fear the potential for abuse - torture and so on. Imagine if someone with a bit of prgramming knowhow created nightmares he could beam into people's heads. Even if he had to subdue them before doing so, it's not a pretty thought. I mean with today's multimedia we already have people creating nasty surprises - various offensive image websites newbies are linked to, those "look carefully at this picture" things with ghosts that suddenly appear - somebody will find a way to abuse this technology.
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Post by Chmee »

I see a meeting of two trends here: the ageing of America and the development of true VR.

Retirement homes of the future will be really easy on the nurses, they'll just check your V-R connection and change your bedpans while you ignore your ruined body and live in a V-R Playboy Mansion or Helm's Deep ......

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Post by salm »

Everytime something like this is invented and you just know that it won´t be available to the public within reasonable time i wish i was born in 400 years when technology is even cooler.
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Post by wolveraptor »

salm wrote:Everytime something like this is invented and you just know that it won´t be available to the public within reasonable time i wish i was born in 400 years when technology is even cooler.
We might have destroyed ourselves through nuclear war, or some more devastating weapon i can't think of by then. Or maybe, humans will no longer reside in their real bodies, but will be little more than human brains floating in mechanical bodies.

Or maybe aliens will have conquered us by then. Be careful what you wish for.

I still say I'm hesitant to accept this. I've read about stuff like stagnation of public will to advance in novels like Foundation, and while they're only novels, I still worry.
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Post by Enforcer Talen »

think of the matrix. turns out the AIs didnt fight us and plug us in - we did that all on our own.

picture this. we get this Matrix lite, plug ourselves in cuz its better then the real world, and have IVs to keep ourselves alive. just like that, we're halfway to the movie.

bizarre, neh?
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Post by Alyrium Denryle »

Am I the only one here that would use this thing to help the blind and deaf?

At any rate, RPGs would get much cooler... wow I can actually cast magic missile now... but I would NOT ALLOW FPS games. They would throw everything about console games not actually desensitizing kids would go out the fucking window...
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