Thought-Controlled Planes Are One Step Closer
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A 55 year-old quadriplegic woman with electrodes implanted in her brain, having previously been able to control a robotic arm, has now been able to successfully fly an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter simulator, according to DARPA.
She has never flown an actual plane, nor is she trained to do so.
“Instead of thinking about controlling a joystick, which is what our ace pilots do when they’re driving this thing, Jan’s thinking about controlling the airplane directly,” Prabhakar said. “For someone who’s never flown — she’s not a pilot in real life — she’s flying that simulator directly from her neural signaling.”
Can we officially call her a cyborg now, or will we have to come up with a more PC term?
h/t Gallen_Dugall
About The Author
Luke Y. Thompson has been writing professionally about movies and pop-culture since 1999, and has also been an actor in some extremely cheap culty and horror movies you will probably never hear much about (he is nonetheless mostly proud of them, as he met his wife on one). As editor of The Robot's Voice since 2012, he can take the blame for the majority of the site's content, all of which he creates because he loves you very, very much. (Although he loves nachos more. Sorry.) Prior to TRV, Luke wrote for publications that include the New Times LA, Los Angeles CityBeat, E! Online, OC Weekly, Geekweek, GeekChicDaily, The L.A. Times, The Village Voice, LA Weekly, and Nerdist