Chinese Researchers Develop Mind-Controlled Car

In what could revolutionize automotive industry, Chinese researchers have developed the country’s first mind-controlled car in the north-east port city of Tianjin, as reported by Reuters.

The car, which took two years to build, is driven by wearing brain signal-reading equipment. The headgear comprises of 16 sensors that capture EEG (electroencephalogram) signals from the driver’s brain, Researcher Zhang Zhao told Reuters. It has a computer program that selects the relevant signals and translates them, enabling control of the car.

“The tester’s EEG signals are picked up by this (brain signal-reading) equipment and transmitted wirelessly to the computer. The computer processes the signals to categorize and recognize people’s intention, then translates them into control command to the car. The core of the whole flow is to process the EEG signals, which is done on the computer,” said Zhang.

The project is led by Associate Professor Duan Feng, from the university’s College of Computer and Control Engineering. He told the media house that the technology aims at better serving people, and that it might soon be possible to combine brain controlled technology and driverless cars, such as the Google Self Driving Car (SDC).

“Driverless cars’ further development can bring more benefits to us, since we can better realize functions relating to brain controlling with the help of the driverless cars’ platform,” said Duan. “In the end, cars, whether driverless or not, and machines are serving for people. Under such circumstances, people’s intentions must be recognized. In our project, it makes the cars better serve human beings.”

As concentration is needed only while changing vehicle’s moving status (changing lanes or turning), Duan said that concerns about potential road accidents caused by the driver being distracted were unfounded. The researchers said that the concept of brain-powered vehicle was inspired by helping disabled people who are physically unable to steer cars.

The car currently, in collaboration with Chinese car manufacturer Great Wall Motor, can only drive in a straight direction, and there are no plans to put it into production, Reuters added.