Although not directly related to AI, this article on Wired is worth a look. A group of researchers and scientists at 5 universities is trying to engineer the human mind by reverse-engineering the brain. Here's a couple of clips:

The researchers' goal is first to simulate a human brain on a supercomputer. Then they plan to use new nano-materials to create logic gates and transistor-based equivalents of neurons and synapses, in order to build a hardware-based, brain-like system. It's the first attempt of its kind.

Ok... no surprises so far.

Computing today is based on the von Neumann architecture, a design whose building blocks -- the control unit, the arithmetic logic unit and the memory -- is the stuff of Computing 101. But that architecture presents two fundamental problems: The connection between the memory and the processor can get overloaded, limiting the speed of the computer to the pace at which it can transfer data between the two. And it requires specific programs written to perform specific tasks.

In contrast, the brain distributes memory and processing functions throughout the system, learning through situations and solving problems it has never encountered before, using a complex combination of reasoning, synthesis and creativity.

"The brain works in a massively multi-threaded way," says Charles King, an analyst with Pund-IT, a research and consulting firm. "Information is coming through all the five senses in a very nonlinear fashion and it creates logical sense out of it."

This is the part that blew me away, though...

The brain is composed of billions of interlinked neurons, or nerve cells that transmit signals. Each neuron receives input from 8,000 other neurons and sends an output to another 8,000. If the input is enough to agitate the neuron, it fires, transmitting a signal through its axon in the direction of another neuron. The junction between two neurons is called a synapse, and that's where signals move from one neuron to another.

OK wow. 8000 connections... each? Now when you multiply that by the number of neurons in the brain...

The human cortex has about 22 billion neurons and 220 trillion synapses, making it roughly 400 times larger than the rat scale model. A supercomputer capable of running a software simulation of the human brain doesn't exist yet. Researchers would require at least a machine with a computational capacity of 36.8 petaflops and a memory capacity of 3.2 petabytes -- a scale that supercomputer technology isn't expected to hit for at least three years.

I don't even know what a petabyte or a petaflop is. That's just some scary stuff right there.

Oh well... I'm sure that I will see it in my lifetime according to Ray Kurzweil's keynote address at the 2008 GDC.

Labels: brain, human mind

'Brain Interfaces' Let Players Control Video Games With Thoughts, Not Thumbs

An excerpt...

Technology developers are poised in the next month to debut new "brain-computer interfaces," which will allow video game players to control their PlayStations and Xboxes with their thoughts, not their fingers.

The devices are powered by neurosensors, attached to points on the scalps of players, where the "Alpha," "Theta" and "Beta" brain waves can be detected, according to researchers.

These sensors are connected to the game controls, which move the on-screen characters left or right, up or down, faster or slower, depending upon the thoughts of the players. "Frontlines," "Doom" and "Tetris" may never be the same again.

I think we are a ways off from doing nifty things with this. After all, even just getting "left/right/up/down" will be hard enough. "Click and drag" is something else entirely!

Labels: brain, control, thought