Sony's mind control patent.

[stevietat]

Ok, so its not actually mind control, but something just feels wrong about this!

Source

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- If you think video games are engrossing now, just wait: PlayStation maker Sony Corp. has been granted a patent for beaming sensory information directly into the brain.

The technique could one day be used to create video games in which you can smell, taste, and touch, or to help people who are blind or deaf.

The U.S. patent, granted to Sony researcher Thomas Dawson, describes a technique for aiming ultrasonic pulses at specific areas of the brain to induce "sensory experiences" such as smells, sounds and images.

"The pulsed ultrasonic signal alters the neural timing in the cortex," the patent states. "No invasive surgery is needed to assist a person, such as a blind person, to view live and/or recorded images or hear sounds."

According to New Scientist magazine, the first to report on the patent, Sony's technique could be an improvement over an existing non-surgical method known as transcranial magnetic stimulation. This activates nerves using rapidly changing magnetic fields, but cannot be focused on small groups of brain cells.

Niels Birbaumer, a neuroscientist at the University of Tuebingen in Germany, told New Scientist he had looked at the Sony patent and "found it plausible." Birbaumer himself has developed a device that enables disabled people to communicate by reading their brain waves.

A Sony Electronics spokeswoman told the magazine that no experiments had been conducted, and that the patent "was based on an inspiration that this may someday be the direction that technology will take us."

[hurricaneone]

Just another submission for the prosecution when the Patent Office goes on trial for being one sandwich short of a picnic.

What the hell is this?

A Sony Electronics spokeswoman told the magazine that no experiments had been conducted, and that the patent "was based on an inspiration that this may someday be the direction that technology will take us."

They're now handing out patents based on inspiration and the direction technology may follow?

That sounds like a good idea.

F*****g idiots.

[Subway]

It's funny that they actualy try to get the patent.

Fredi

[asheep_uk]

You're laughing now, but you won't be when it happens in 25 years' time and everybody gets one, including you.

Or, they'll make you laugh using it. Or something.

[ihoss.com]

Mind control? Sony has been using it on Fredi for at least half a decade now!

[Subway]

Hey, if this is ever possible (and I would not bet on it), than I will be the first to stand inline to get "the matrix inducer" at day one.

Fredi

[adit_ya_sharma]

But come to think about it, the possibilities, it would be awesome. Close your eyes to have deathmatches online(reminds me of Ghost In The Shell), feeling the sensation of being hit by 1000 bullets, rockets, lasers, bombs and what not and getting fragged, laying on the ground and feeling death. Feeling the sense of touch of rust on the walls at Black Mesa and encountering the monsters and physics. Yup, this does looks like a Matrix in the human world, but it will be awesome, I'd rather give up my life for a fantasy life like this.

[EVPohovich]

Why, while reading that article, did I start to salivate, and sudden feel the urge to eat cheese?

[flashpenguin]

CSI and the justice system could probably use a similar device to guarantee 100% accurate sentencing of criminals..

Ok.. Last night I dreamed I was wrongly enprisioned..

[allme4myjesus]

well with this it would be insanely hard to actually interpret thoughts, that would be like figureing out binary without knowing much about it at all, its just science fiction; for now!! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA

[jeu]

This is going to do wonders for vamps industry.