Scientists unveil car that can be driven just by THINKING
If someone goes past with no hands on the wheel then dont be alarmed - so long as theyre driving one of these.
A team of brain scientists have developed a car which can be driven entirely by mind power alone.
The driver puts on a special headset - originally designed for video games - which has sensors linked to the cars electronics via wireless technology.
All they have to do is think left or right and to go faster and the car responds accordingly.
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Deciding on a direction: A team of brain scientists has developed a car which can be driven entirely by mind power alone
The car has been developed by a team of German scientists who are putting a prototype through tests to see if it could one day be used for everyday driving.
The BrainDriver technology works by rigging a car up with video cameras, radars and laser sensors that give it a full 3D picture of its surroundings.
The driver then puts on the special cap with 16 sensors on it which pick up the brains electromagnetic signals.
The signal are interpreted by a computer which can be trained to understand that two different specific patterns mean left or right.
In one test a driver managed to navigatea right hand turn, albeit with a slight delay between giving the command and the vehicle moving.
High-tech: The BrainDriver technology works by rigging a car up with video cameras, radars and laser sensors that give it a full 3D picture of its surroundings
In a second test the car was trained to recognise four patterns, enabling the driver to accelerate or decelerate the vehicle.
The project was created by the AutoNOMOS team, part of the Artificial Intelligence Group of the Freie Universitt in Berlin.
They tested iPad and eye-tracking devices before settling on brain power as the best method of controlling a car without your hands.
The researchers said their test car was just a proof of concept and that there is still a long way to go before we can take control of machines with our brains.
Don't try this at home: Driving round a corner with no hands
No decision has yet been made either about whether it should be made available to the wider public.
The BrainDriver application is, of course, a demonstration and not roadworthy yet but on the long run, human-machine interfaces like this could bear huge potential in combination with autonomous driving, they said.
They also had another word of caution: Of course you should never try this at home.
For safety reasons we tested it at a large open space at an airport.
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