Control Second Life with brain power

Boffins latest break-through

By Nick Farrell

JAPANESE boffins have enabled paralysed people to enter the virtual world of Second Life using a machine that reads their brainwaves.

Top boffin Junichi Ushiba, associate professor at Keio Univesity's rehabilitation centre said that Second Life could motivate patients with severe paralysis, who are too depressed to undergo rehabilitation.

According to AP, head gear embedded with electrodes analyses brain waves in the cerebral motor cortex. If a person thinks that they are walking the machine can make Second Life character move.

Ushiba said that if a person sees their characters moving around, it can reinvigorate their brain activity and restore some lost functions.

Recent research has shown that if a stroke leaves someone's right hand paralysed, it is possible to gain some control back if you try to use it.

Using the head gear and Second Life is an ideal way to train people to do that, he said.

The next phase of the experiment is to test the technology on actual paralysis patients.

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