Cheap Brainwave Control

Cheap EEG/EMG headsets are coming into the market, principally designed as gaming interfaces. However, they might enable interesting research as well -- such as technology mediated telepathy. You can buy off-the-shelf systems now for as little as $600 from CyberLearning, for instance.

"But the price and size of EEG hardware is shrinking. NeuroSky's "dry-active" sensors don't require gel, are the size of a thumbnail, and could be put into a headset that retails for as little as $20, said NeuroSky CEO Stanley Yang.

Yang is secretive about his company's product lineup because of a nondisclosure agreement with the manufacturer. But he said an international toy manufacturer plans to unveil an inexpensive gizmo with an embedded NeuroSky biosensor at the Japan Toy Association's trade show in late June. A U.S. version is scheduled to debut at the American International Fall Toy Show in October.

"Whatever we sell, it will work on 100 percent or almost 100 percent of people out there, no matter what the condition, temperature, indoor or outdoors," Yang said. "We aim for wearable technology that everyone can put on and go without failure, as easy as the iPod."

Researchers at NeuroSky and other startups are also building prototypes of toys that use electromyography (EMG), which records twitches and other muscular movements, and electrooculography (EOG), which measures changes in the retina."

more telerobots....

http://www.terk.ri.cmu.edu/media/

Carnegie Mellon Unveils Internet-Controlled Robots That Anyone Can Build by Following the Right Recipe

Creator Says TeRK Brings Robotics to Usability Level Never Before Seen by the Public

The idea is definitely right, but they use a specialized component for the core of the robot -- laptops and other PCs should probably be the core brains of robotics. http://www.terk.ri.cmu.edu/media/

Nursing-care, rehab robots gaining practical use | The Japan Times Online

Nursing-care, rehab robots gaining practical use | The Japan Times Online: A robotic exoskeleton targeted for use in nursing homes, $590/month.

Telerobot

It blinks and fidgets in its seat, moving its foot up and down restlessly, its shoulders rising gently as though it were breathing. These micromovements are so convincing that it's hard to believe this is a machine -- it seems more like a man wearing a rubber mask. But a living, breathing man.

But "Geminoid HI-1," as the robot is called, has another trick up its sleeve.

"Everyone, thank you so much for coming today," it says in polite but languid Japanese at an ATR demo Thursday, its lips moving to the sound. The voice is Ishiguro's, broadcast through a speaker inside his android double.

Potential robot bodies:
http://www.etek.chalmers.se/~almir/
http://www.plen.jp/

Wired 15.04: Mixed Feelings

Wired 15.04: Mixed Feelings: "See with your tongue. Navigate with your skin. Fly by the seat of your pants (literally). How researchers can tap the plasticity of the brain to hack our 5 senses — and build a few new ones"