Robot Mind-Controlled for a Walk from Halfway Across the World (Video)

Technology isn't quite at the point where it can respond to mental commands, but it is getting there, thanks to experiments like the one we are about to detail.

The Virtual Embodiment and Robotic Re-embodiment (VERE) group succeeded in adapting fMRI brain activity-sensing technology to their goal.

Said goal was controlling a robot only through thought, and we have to say that the results speak for themselves.

A volunteer, acting from a laboratory in Israel, remotely commanded a small robot to walk around a room, follow a person, locate a teapot, etc.

Visuals were received through a small camera mounted, unsurprisingly, in the robot's head.

The only problem was the “lag” of sorts, but it shouldn't be too hard to compensate for it or eliminate it altogether.

As for uses, paralyzed subjects could explore their surroundings with something like this, people could work in hazardous environments form afar, etc. Future tests will involve a human-sized robot instead of the gnome in the video below.