Chinese scientists have built a wearable robot that can reportedly read a human mind by monitoring brain waves and muscle activity. Developers claim the machine was able to “recognize human intention” with 96% accuracy.
RT news reported that testing the device on factory workers, researchers from the Intelligent Manufacturing Innovation Technology Centre at China Three Gorges University apparently found that the volunteers did not need to issue verbal commands or perform gestures when they needed to grab a tool or a component.
The developers noted that the robot reacted “almost instantly,” picking up the required object and placing it on the workstation, according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP). The paper added that the team had published its findings in the domestic peer-reviewed China Mechanical Engineering journal. The researchers could not be reached for additional comments.
Daily Star reported that the headgear uses a ‘non-invasive’ brain wave detector and arm sensors in order to make commands, which are sent to an attachment on the user’s arm.
Delighted researchers said that the robot showed it was able to follow the commands “almost instantly”, and it is being claimed that these collaborative robots or ‘cobots’ could mark a technological breakthrough. The device, which scans a user’s brainwaves and muscle activity, has been designed by the Intelligent Manufacturing Innovation Technology Centre at China Three Gorges University.
Reflecting on the findings in the academic journal China Mechanical Engineering., Project lead scientist Dong Yuanfa wrote on the possibilities that robots could create an industry as “assembly work accounts for 45% of the total workload, and 20-30% of the total production cost”.
