Car Controlled by Mind? A Chinese Inventor Made the Impossible Possible [Details HERE]

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In a scene which resembles a science fiction movie, inventors from China have done the impossible by developing a car that can be controlled by the mind.

Researchers from Nankai University have invented a car with sensors that can capture and decipher signals coming from the driver's brain says Reuters. With just one's thoughts, the driver can make the vehicle move forward and backward, stop, open or close the doors.

To control the vehicle's movements, the driver needs to wear a specially-designed headset with 16 sensors built inside the accessory. Engadget says the sensors monitor and receive electroencephalogram signals from the driver's brain, passing on the signals to a computer which deciphers the information into more relevant data that the vehicle can understand.

Zhao Zhang is one of the researchers behind the project. Talking to Reuters reporters, he explained how the vehicle worked.

"The tester's EEG signals are picked up by this (brain signal-reading) equipment and transmitted wirelessly to the computer. The computer processes the signals to categorize and recognize people's intention, then translates them into control command to the car."

On Business Standard, Zhang says that the vehicle is designed to help the disabled do more than what they are able to do now as well as provide people with an alternative means of controlling their vehicles.

Zhang explained, "There are two starting points of this project. The first one is to provide a driving method without using hands or feet for the disabled who are unable to move freely; and secondly, to provide healthy people with a new and more intellectualized driving mode."

PC Mag questions whether the vehicle will still be safe if the driver starts to daydream while on the road. Duan Feng clarifies that this is not an issue as concentration is only required when making a turn or switching lanes.

Feng leads the team of researchers and an associate professor at Tianjin's Nankai University. Currently, the car has only been tested in driving straight lines.

In the future, the researchers hope to incorporate the technology into autonomous vehicles such as the Google Self-Driving Car to improve the driving experience.

"Driverless cars' further development can bring more benefits to us, since we can better realize functions relating to brain controlling with the help of the driverless cars' platform," Duan told Reuters.

Although the university is working with Chinese car maker Great Wall Motor, there are currently no plans of putting the car into production anytime soon.