Now, a car that navigates using driver's brain waves
05:44PM Thu 16 Jul, 2015
Controlling cars with your mind may sound like something from a science fiction film but this futuristic idea has just become a reality.
Experts have modified a BMW i3 electric car so it can be driven remotely using just a person's thoughts.
And in a video demonstration, the car was navigated around a curved track by translating brain waves into driving commands.
The car was developed by MoneySuperMarket for its Car Insurance Epic Mind Drive project.
The team replaced the driver's seat of the BMW with a mechanical rig capable of pressing the pedals and turning the steering wheel on command.
A driver was then fitted with an electroencephalography (EEG) neuro headset to monitor their brain activity while being trained to remotely drive the car.
This training involved thinking left, thinking right, thinking about going forward and stopping.
Instead of simply thinking about these actions and movements, however, such training typically involves associating a specific mental image with each command.
For example, the software can be trained to associate a person thinking about a floating balloon with turning left.
Each time the person thinks of the floating balloon their brain signals are the same, and it is these signals that are 'translated' into commands.
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