Remote-Controlled Humans
Back in the late ‘90s, scientists at Tokyo University perfected a
remote-control device that allowed them to manipulate cockroaches. The
device, which was surgically implanted on the insect’s back, sent
impulses through electrodes that had replaced the host’s antennae.
It allowed researchers to direct the roach along a specific path,
forward or backward, left or right. The tiny backpack also could be
fitted with a micro-camera, to create a highly mobile probe that could
go where people can’tinto the rubble to search for earthquake
victims, for example; or under a door to spy on a competitor’s
marketing meeting.
Those who read about this technological “advance” at the time
probably wondered how long it would take before something similar was
attempted with people. Not long at all, as it turns out. The first
remote-control experiments with humans are here.
There is nothing quite so ghastly as surgical implants going on. Not
yet, anyway. But then, the technology is still in its infancy, and
besides, the whole idea of implantations (of such things as ID chips,
for example) is still met with revulsion among much of the public.
Nevertheless, Nippon Telegraph & Telephone (NTT), one of Japan’s
largest corporations, is forging ahead. At the 2005 SIGGRAPH computer
graphics conference in Los Angeles this past August, NTT researchers
debuted an innovation known as a galvanic vestibular stimulation
device (GVS), part of a project they call “Shaking the World.”
The GVS has two components: a headset that looks like a pair of stereo
earphones, and a wireless handset that resembles a souped-up
Playstation controller. After the subject puts on the headphones, a
weak electrical current can be delivered to the mastoid bones just
behind the ears, thereby interfering with the body’s sense of
balance. If the current is sufficiently strong, the body will be
tricked into thinking it is falling, and will veer in the direction
that restores equilibrium.
Start the subject walking and, if you have the controller in hand, you
can move him or her left or right, and there will be nothing the
subject can do about it. It may be rudimentary, but it is
unquestionably a human remote control.
(For those who would like to see a brief video clip of the GVS in
action, go here: http://www.forbes.com/video/?video_url=http://images.forbes.com/video/fvn/misc/radiocontrolledhuman&boxes=custom)
Conference attendees in L.A. lined up to try the thing out. Describing
her experience, AP business writer Yuri Kageyama wrote, “The
phenomenon is painless but dramatic. Your feet start to move before
you know it. I could even remote-control myself by taking the switch
into my own hands. . . It's a mesmerizing sensation similar to being
drunk or melting into sleep under the influence of anesthesia. But
it's more definitive, as though an invisible hand were reaching inside
your brain.”
NTT would like to take their invention commercial. One obvious
application would be in gaming, and researchers have put together a
crude virtual racing game that incorporates the technology to heighten
the perception of centrifugal force as the user maneuvers a car around
the electronic track.
The company is currently investigating whether or not gamers would be
interested in the device, says Manabu Sakurai, NTT's marketing
manager, and he adds that flight simulation is another possibility.
“Because GVS causes you to feel the same kinds of motion as a
large-scale flight simulator,” he says, “it could be a much
simpler and more cost-effective way to train people.”
NTT can also program the controller so that it is timed to music,
creating what senior research scientist Taro Maeda calls a “virtual
dance experience,” adding “I'm really hopeful Apple Computer will
be interested in this technology to offer it in their iPod.”
Other, more productive potential ends to which the technology might
eventually be put include helping the elderly prevent falls, and
assisting those with an already impaired sense of balance.
Military applications? Maybe. Of course, no enemy is going to
cooperate by donning a headset, but what if a remotely directed,
fine-tuned electromagnetic pulse could be aimed at a target’s ears
and cause the same reaction? That could be very useful in a situation
where you wanted to capture rather than kill your adversary, and
Invocon, Inc., a small defense contractor, is exploring just such a
possibility.
If all of this seems to you just a tad sinister, well, you’re not
alone. Kageyama summed up her experience by writing that, “If you're
determined to fight the suggestive orders from the electric currents
by clinging to a fence or just lying on your back, you simply won't
move. But from my experience, if the currents persist, you'd probably
be persuaded to follow their orders. And I didn't like that sensation.
At all.”
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