Brain-Computer Interface Lets Three People Play Video Games Using Their Minds

Telepathic communication might be one step towards truth thanks to new research from the University of Washington. A group created a way that allows three human beings to paintings together to resolve a problem the use of best their minds.

In BrainNet, three human beings play a Tetris-like game the usage of a mind-to-mind interface. This is the first demonstration of two matters: a brain-to-brain community of extra than humans, and someone being able to both receive and ship records to others the use of only their brain. The crew published its consequences April 16 inside the Nature journal Scientific Reports, even though this research previously attracted media interest after the researchers published in September to the preprint site arXiv.

“Humans are social beings who speak with each different to cooperate and solve issues that none folks can resolve on our personal,” said corresponding creator Rajesh Rao, the CJ, and Elizabeth Hwang professor in the UW’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering and a co-director of the Center for Neurotechnology. “We desired to understand if a set of human beings should collaborate using handiest their brains. That’s how we came up with the concept of BrainNet: where two human beings help a 3rd character solve a task.”

As in Tetris, the sport indicates a block on the pinnacle of the display and a line that needs to be completed at the lowest. Two human beings, the Senders, can see both the block and the string, however, can not manipulate the sport. The third person, the Receiver, can see handiest the neighborhood, however, can tell the sport whether to rotate the block to efficiently whole the line. Each Sender decides whether the block wishes to be turned around and then passes that facts from their brain, via the net and to the mind of the Receiver. Then the Receiver procedures that statistics and sends a command — to rotate or now not rotate the block — to the sport immediately from their brain, with any luck completing and clearing the road.

The crew asked five corporations of participants to play sixteen rounds of the game. For every institution, all three individuals have been in specific rooms and couldn’t see, pay attention or talk to each other.

The Senders each could see the game displayed on a pc display screen. The display additionally confirmed the word “Yes” on one facet and the phrase “No” on the alternative aspect. Beneath the “Yes” option, an LED flashed 17 times consistent with 2nd. Beneath the “No” alternative, an LED shot 15 times a 2nd.

“Once the Sender makes a decision about whether or not to rotate the block, they send ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to the Receiver’s brain by means of concentrating at the corresponding light,” said first writer Linxing Preston Jiang, a scholar within the Allen School’s mixed bachelor’s/grasp’s degree application.

The Senders wore electroencephalography caps that picked up the exciting hobby of their brains. The lights’ one of a kind flashing patterns trigger specific sorts of amusement in the mind, which the caps can pick up. So, because the Senders stared on the mild for his or her corresponding selection, the cap picked up those signals, and the pc furnished real-time comments through displaying a cursor on the display that moved in the direction of their desired choice. The picks had been then translated right into a “Yes” or “No” solution that could be dispatched over the net to the Receiver.