Thought Police

The Atlanta Journal Constitution writes that the Senate Brain Fingerprinting Technology Study Committee meets this morning down in Gray, Ga.:

“Brain fingerprinting” is the name offered up by its inventor, a fellow named Lawrence Farwell of Iowa. In simple terms, it’s a next-generation lie detector that measures brain waves like an electroencephalogram. That’s an EEG to you laymen.The CIA apparently helped fund its development. A suspect is fitted with a sensor-laden headband and shown a series of flashing pictures on a screen. If an image — a picture of a crime scene, for instance — is familiar, the suspect’s brain triggers a response somewhere within 300 and 800 milliseconds. “So far, they haven’t been able to find anyone who’s been able to fool the test,” said the committee chairman, John Douglas (R-Social Circle). Here’s a link to a PBS video on the topic.

Lawrence Farwell’s company Brain Fingerprinting Laboratory was funded to the tune of one million dollars by the CIA to investigate its use in antiterrorism. For a critique of this technique see “Brain Fingerprinting: A Critical Analysis”.

The Times is running a piece on Emotiv’s Brain Computer Interface for computer games:

“Think carefully before you answer: is a device that is capable of reading people’s minds fact or fantasy? We knew you’d say that. But scientists at an American laboratory have been brainstorming the same question for more than five years and have come up with a mind-blowingly different answer. They call it Epoc, but when it is launched early next year in Britain and the US it will probably be known simply as the “mind-reading helmet”, capable, supposedly, of knowing what users are thinking.”

See also – Forget the Wii: here comes mind control

Found (courtesy of Mind Hacks) this article on the ethics of using technology to enhance brain function stemming from a roundtable meeting of experts hosted jointly by the British Medical Association.

“Despite a large and growing academic literature about the development and use of cognitive enhancements, there has been very little public debate about the way society should respond to these developments and what, if any, public policy response is needed. This paper aims to encourage such a debate, by looking at what is possible now, what may be possible in the next 20-30 years and highlighting some of the key ethical, social and legal issues raised. The types of enhancement covered in the paper include nutrition, drugs brain stimulation, neurotechnology and genetic manipulation.”

From Psychiatry Online:

The implications of neuroscience research when it is used in the cause of national security raise several ethical considerations. National security research is not just about building better missiles or planes. Federally sponsored neuroscientists are studying ways to exploit brains as well as bombs, delving into brain functions relating to sleep, learning, and decision making. However, “neurosecurity” research, as one observer calls it, skates not only along the edge of knowledge but at the border of bioethics as well.The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) engages in high-risk, high-payoff research with potential military applications, and DARPA does not take an incremental approach. “We are obsessed with understanding the underlying biology, physiology, and neuroscience of big problems,” wrote Amy Kruse, Ph.D., program manager in the Defense Sciences Office, on the agency’s Web site.

From Terilyn Lee Johnston:

Often the center-piece of science fiction and dramatic films such as Star Wars, A Clockwork Orange, and Conspiracy Theory, the idea of mind control is seemingly fantastical, unrealistic, and the invention of a right wing conspiracy theory (created by those who fear the “Big Brother” government). The reality of scientific neurology research, however, is not contained within science fiction novels and films. Mind control is a very apparent and quickly developing area of science, one that merits extensive research and evaluation. This paper will evaluate the area of mind through five areas of analysis: Historical developments, the problems associated with mind control, the benefits that are apparent within this area of research, the implications upon society that are inherent in light of this science, and finally proposed solutions that would remedy the problems that are existent within the status quo.

From Slashdot, Major Breakthrough in Direct Neural Interface:

In a major breakthrough, neurologists are reporting that they can decypher neurological impulses into speech with an 80% accuracy. A paralyzed man who is incapable of speech has electrodes implanted in his brain which detect the electrical pulses in the brain relating to speech. These signals are then fed into computers which covert these pulses into signals suitable for speech synthesis. As a biotech marvel, this is astonishing. Depending on the rate of development it is possible to imagine Professor Hawking migrating to this, as it would be immune to any further loss of body movement and would vastly accelerate his ability to talk. On the flip-side, direct brain I/O is also a major step towards William Gibson’s Neuromancer and other cyberpunk dark futures.

Electromagnetic Aspect of Mind Control:A Scientific Analysis by Vlad N. Binhi of the General Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences can be found at the MindJustice site.

In this article, are considered general questions associated with the concept of EMF control of the human organism and particularly of the human mind. The definition of EM mind control is specified first. A brief historical overview is further presented showing main milestones of the development of this concept in the USA and in Russia. Then, we analyze known methods that allow extracting information about brain processes. Other methods are reviewed as well, which in contrast allow delivery of information into the human brain, by exposing it to EM fields and radiations.

Another presentation at Neuroscience 2007 was this work by University of Arizona researchers who demonstrated a robot that moves by using the brain impulses of a moth .

 The robot’s motion is guided by a tiny electrode implanted in the moth’s brain, Associate Professor Charles M. Higgins said, specifically to a single neuron that is responsible for keeping the moth’s vision steady during flight. The neuron transmits electrical signals which are then amplified in the robot’s base and through a mathematical formula, a computer translates the signals into action, making the robot move. The work was partially funded by the NIH and the USAF.

There’s a video of an ABC News piece on NeuroSky and their Brain Computer Interface.

Yet another Brain Computer Interface(BCI) for the disabled comes from the Brain2Robot project at the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Architecture and Software Technology.

It involves a prosthetic robot arm that can be controlled through a Brain Computer Interface (BCI), which is combined with an ‘eyetracker’. To establish the direction for the arm to move, the patient’s eyes are monitored by two cameras mounted on a special pair of glasses. The actual movement of the robot arm, however, is initiated by a signal from the brain which is interpreted by the BCI. Electrodes attached to the patient’s scalp are used to measure electrical signals from the brain. These are, in turn, amplified and analysed by the computer which can detect changes in brain activity. The machine can then carry out the will of the patient as dictated by their mental idea.

The Daily Mail has news of another company developing Brain Computer Interfaces(BCIs) for the handicapped. This time its Neural Signals Inc. based in Duluth Georgia who are developing BCIs for speech restoration. The article covers an implant based solution but the company is working on non-invasive solutions as well. The research is being conducted in conjunction with Boston Univeristy.

From Sharon Weinberger at Wired comes news of use of an acoustic weapon by the Georgian police on opposition protesters in Tbilisi. The device appears to be a long range acoustic device (LRAD) is a crowd-control and hailing device developed by American Technology Corporation.

The Secrecy News Blog at the FAS has obtained a new US military manual on the use of non lethal weapons(pdf). The new military manual seeks to preempt confusion about the proper role of nonlethal weapons while promoting their use when suitable. The manual also identifies the NLW capabilities that are currently available for use in each of the military services.

More details are emerging on Honeywell’s Augmented Cognition (AugCog) research. Defense contractor Honeywell is developing brain scan technologies for military, spy applications. Honeywell plans to unleash a plethora of mind monitoring technology and promises to revolutionize defense and intelligence, as well as the civilian sector. Initial applications include battlefield monitoring of soldiers mental state and using brainwave monitoring for faster image recognition.

Honeywell’s technologies have made some, including activists and lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) fearful, with concern about how these mind monitoring techs could be abused. The ACLU is adopting a watch-and-wait approach to the technology.”Any technology has good uses and bad uses, depending on how it’s used,” said Jay Stanley, a privacy expert with the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington, D.C. “If it becomes a tool of controlling and oppressing rather than helping people, it becomes a civil-liberties issue. People love the gee-whiz factor, but for a lot of them, there is a dark side and the potential for an invasion of the privacy and the values Americans expect.”Honeywell claims the technologies present no threat to the freedoms of U.S. citizens and will not be abused.

There’s an article at Science Daily surveying some recent developments in brain machne interfaces for the handicapped: Neuroscientists have significantly advanced brain-machine interface (BMI) technology to the point where severely handicapped people who cannot contract even one leg or arm muscle now can independently compose and send e-mails and operate a TV in their homes. They are using only their thoughts to execute these actions.