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We’re one step closer to telekinesis. No Carrie-esque meltdowns or black magic required. The University of South Florida (AKA our alma mater) has announced that it’s hosting an International Brain-Drone Race on Feb. 9, and it’s exactly as it sounds: Racers move the drones using their minds, not handheld controllers.
“When you imagine a movement, your brain produces the same electrical activity as if you were performing the movement with you muscles,” said Marvin Andujar, PhD, and director of the Neuro-Machine Interaction Research Lab at USF in a press release. “For drone-racing, we have our pilots imagine they’re pushing an object forward. Then, we capture that signal, classify it and send the information to the drone, which has already been programmed to move when it receives that data.”
Pilots wear a special electroencephalography (EEG) headset, which lets scientists detect, interpret and send those signals. As cool as the races themselves are, professors and students are using what they’re learning in developing the drones to come up with new uses for EEG wearables. Andujar threw out using them to do things like open and close doors in a smart house, or having your environment change to suit your mood. Pretty awesome, huh?
Get a firsthand look at the tech in the video below: