Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26444560-20150529041242

Hey everyone!

So I recently got into SAO and I couldn't help but wonder "How possible is it for a NerveGear-style rig to exist?" I'm currently studying Biomedical Engineering at my University and I remembered something from class that I hope excites all of you.

A lot of people ask if it's possible to intercept brainwaves and then transmit data back into the brain so our actions and sensations can be expressed in-game. Most of the popular ideas around so far have been that we'd need a Matrix-style rig (ports directly into the spinal column to interface with the brain) and, maybe that would be the most practical way so far. However, researchers from the University of Washington have found a way for what they call "brain-to-brain interfacing."

***WARNING: This is about to get very technical so you can skip to the bottom for a TL;DR***

I'll post articles and research papers down below for your own judgement, but summing up the work they did: One researcher was hooked into an EEG to scan their brain activity. Another researcher was a mile away and hooked into what's called a TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation). The EEG subject was then sat in front of a screen and needed to shoot down a missile headed to his base (they basically redid Missile Command). However, the act of shooting could only be done on the TMS sime, who had no screen. The EEG subject had to think of making an action (here being "clicking a mouse at the right time"), which was then transferred via a brain-computer interface to the internet to arrive at the TMS subject, who then completed the action the EEG subject initiated.

So let's breakdown the science, shall we? (If you don't care about the science, feel free to skip to the next paragraph) How an EEG works is it detects electrical activity in the brain. If you've never been hooked up to one, basically a HUGE array of electrodes are placed on your scalp. It then detects the fine electrical impulses occurring between your neurons. A TMS works by, as the name says, magnetic stimulation. Usually it's a small coil or ring with a current flowing through it that can penetrate into specific regions of the brain. Since Electricity and Magnetism are two sides of the same coin, these magnetic fields can stimulate the same electric impulses gathered from the EEG to directly copy the brain activity (within a reasonable margin of error).

A lot of people are scared about this technology, and they have a justifiable reason to be. TMS can cause seizures, fainting, and potentially other problems. It's main uses are as a treatment for depression, schizophrenia, and even migraines. Many more clinical tests are on-going to see just how much it affects people, but thankfully it doesn't have that nasty possibility of microwaving your brain like the old NerveGear does.

But how do these two technologies mean we're close to a real NerveGear and thus our own amazing worlds like SAO, ALO and GGO? Surprisingly, it's simple. Your thoughts control your avatar via an EEG-type system. A response from the game then signals a TMS-style response to various receptors in the brain. The display would probably be something along the lines of your real-world field of view would be behind a layer of glass with projectors to immerse you in the game world.

TL;DR

Based on technologies we already have, with a little refinement we have the possibility of transmitting brainwaves and receiving equivalent sensory feedback from a game purely from a helmet-type device. Your actions would be controlled by though. Actions that affect your character would be transmitted to your real-life brain. AND no risk of brain-frying, though small possibilities of seizures and fainting. Would it ever be possible to act "normally," with our brain actually diverting information intended to move us to the character? Non-invasively, maybe not. But hey, this is only modern-day tech. Given the events of the story are in the 2020's, maybe something coud come along if we tried hard enough. But right now, this may just be possible.

REFRENCES:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/brain-controlled-movement/http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0111332#s4http://www.washington.edu/news/2013/08/27/researcher-controls-colleagues-motions-in-1st-human-brain-to-brain-interface/





  