Research Paper Research Paper Volume : 2 | Issue : 5 | May 2013 • ISSN No 2277 - 8179 Volume : 2 | IssueComputer : 5 | May 2013 • ISSNScience No 2277 - 8179 KEYWORDS : Brain Gate & Brain Computer Interface Kejal Chintan Vadza Asst. Prof. at Sutex Bank College of Computer Applications & Science, Amroli, Surat, Gujarat - 395009 ABSTRACT Brain Gate was developed by the bio-tech company Cyber kinetics in 2003 in conjunction with the Depart- ment of Neuroscience at Brown University. The device was designed to help those who have lost control of their limbs, or other bodily functions. The computer chip, which is implanted into the brain, monitors brain activity in the patient and con- verts the intention of the user into computer commands. Currently the chip uses 100 hair-thin electrodes that 'hear' neurons firing in specific areas of the brain, for example, the area that controls arm movement. The activities are translated into electrically charged signals and are then sent and decoded using a program, thus moving the arm. According to the Cyber kinetics' website, two patients have been implanted with the Brain Gate system. Brain Gate was developed by the bio-tech company Cyber ki- - netics in 2003 in conjunction with the Department of Neurosci- times called an infomorph or “noömorph.” In a case where it is ence at Brown University. The device was designed to help those subject would become a form of artificial intelligence, some who have lost control of their limbs, or other bodily functions. The computer chip, which is implanted into the brain, moni- claimtransferred ordinary into humanan artificial rights, body, certainly to which if itsthe consciousness consciousness is tors brain activity in the patient and converts the intention of withinconfined, was it feelingwould (oralso was become doing a arobot. good jobIn either of simulating) case it might as if the user into computer commands. Currently the chip uses 100 it was the donor. of the brain, for example, the area that controls arm movement. Uploading consciousness into bodies created by robotic means Thehair-thin activities electrodes are translated that ‘hear’ into neurons electrically firing incharged specific signals areas and are then sent and decoded using a program, thus moving uploading scenario, the physical human brain does not move the arm. According to the Cyber kinetics’ website, two patients fromis a goal its originalof some bodyin the into artificial a new intelligence robotic shell; community. rather, the In con the- have been implanted with the Brain Gate system. sciousness is assumed to be recorded and/or transferred to a new robotic brain, which generates responses indistinguishable The device was designed to help those who have lost control from the original organic brain. of their limbs, or other bodily functions, such as patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or spinal cord injury. The The idea of uploading human consciousness in this manner computer chip, which is implanted into the brain, monitors - brain activity in the patient and converts the intention of the teresting and disturbing, such as matters of individuality and user into computer commands. theraises soul. many Vitalists philosophical would say questions that uploading which peoplewas a priori may findimpos in- sible. Many people also wonder if they were uploaded, would it Currently the chip uses 100 hair-thin electrodes that sense the be their sentience uploaded, or simply a copy? the brain, for example, the area that controls arm movement. Even if uploading is theoretically possible, there is currently no Theelectro-magnetic activity is translated signature into of neurons electrically firing charged in specific signals areas and of technology capable of recording or describing mind states in are then sent and decoded using a program, which can move the way imagined, and no one knows how much computational either a robotic arm or a computer cursor. According to the Cy- power or storage would be needed to simulate the activity of the berkinetics’ website, three patients have been implanted with mind inside a computer. - tient (Matt Nagle) has a spinal cord injury, whilst another has Methods for Mind Uploading advancedthe BrainGate ALS. system. The company has confirmed that one pa True mind uploading remains speculation: the technology to perform such a feat is not currently available. A number of In addition to real-time analysis of neuron patterns to relay methods have however, been suggested to carry out mind trans- movement, the Braingate array is also capable of recording fers in the future. electrical data for later analysis. A potential use of this feature would be for a neurologist to study seizure patterns in a patient i. Blue Brain Project with epilepsy. ii. The immortality test project iii. Serial sectioning Braingate is currently recruiting patients with a range of neu- iv. Nanotechnology romuscular and neurodegenerative conditions for pilot clinical v. “Cyborging” trials in the United States.The whole technique of this system vi. Brain imaging based on mind uploading. vii. Recreating Mind Uploading Ethical issues of mind uploading mind uploading (also occasionally referred to by other terms There are many ethical issues concerning mind uploading. Vi- such as mind downloading, mind transfer, whole brain emu- able mind uploading technology might challenge the ideas of lation, whole body emulation, or electronic transcendence) human immortality, property rights, capitalism, human intelli- - gence, an afterlife, and the abrahamic view of man as created cial substrate, such as a computer simulation. in God’s image. These challenges often cannot be distinguished refers to the hypothetical transfer of a human mind to an artifi from those raised by all technologies that extend human tech- Thinkers with a strongly mechanistic view of human intelli- nological control over human bodies, e.g. organ transplant. gence (such as Marvin Minsky) or a strongly positive view of Perhaps the best way to explore such issues is to discover prin- robot-human social integration (such as Hans Moravec and Ray ciples applicable to current bioethics problems, and question Kurzweil) have openly speculated about the possibility and de- what would be permissible if they were applied consistently to sirability of this. a future technology. This points back to the role of - tion in exploring such problems, as powerfully demonstrated in In the case where the mind is transferred into a computer, the the 20th century by such works as Brave New Worldscience, Nineteen fic IJSR - INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH 45 Research Paper Research Paper Eighty-FourVolume : 2 |, IssueDune : 5and | May Star 2013 Trek • ISSN, each No 2277of which - 8179 frame current Rats implanted with BCIs in Theodore Berger’s experiments- Volume : 2 | Issue : 5 | May 2013 • ISSN No 2277 - 8179 ethical problems in a future environment where those have Several laboratories have managed to record signals from mon- come to dominate the society. key and rat cerebral cortices in order to operate BCIs to carry out movement. Monkeys have navigated computer cursors on Another issue with mind uploading is the question as to wheth- screen and commanded robotic arms to perform simple tasks er an uploaded mind is really the “same” sentience, or simply an simply by thinking about the task and without any motor out- exact copy with the same memories and personality. Although put. In May 2008 photographs that showed a monkey operating this difference would be undetectable to an external observer a robotic arm with its mind at the Pittsburgh University Medical (and the upload itself would probably be unable to tell), it could Center were published in a number of well known science jour- mean that uploading a mind would actually kill it and replace it nals and magazines.Other research on cats has decoded visual with a clone. Some people would be unwilling to upload them- signals. selves for this reason. If their sentience is deactivated even for a nanecond, they assert, it is permanently wiped out. Some more Early work gradual methods may avoid this problem by keeping the up- The operant conditioning loaded sentience functioning throughout the procedure. demonstrated that monkeys - tion of a biofeedback meter studies arm withof Fetz neural and activitycolleagues [7]. Suchfirst To control all singnals passed through mind into computer, we work in the 1970s established could that monkeys learn to couldcontrol quickly the deflec learn need one Interface. We known this interface as “Brain Computer Interface”. neurons in the primary motor cortex if they were rewarded for generatingto voluntarily appropriate control the patterns firing rates of neural of individual activity. [8]and multiple Brain Computer Interface: A brain–computer interface (BCI), sometimes called a direct Monkey operating a robotic arm with brain–computer inter- neural interface or a brain–machine interface, is a direct facing Studies that developed algorithms to reconstruct move- communication pathway between a brain and an external de- ments from motor cortex neurons, which control movement, vice. BCIs are often aimed at assisting, augmenting or repairing date back to the 1970s. In the 1980s, Apostolos Georgopoulos at human cognitive or sensory-motor functions. Johns Hopkins University found a mathematical relationship be- tween the electrical responses of single motor-cortex neurons Research on BCIs began in the 1970s at the University of Califor- in rhesus macaque