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Science Supergroup to Rethink Blindness and Disabilities... With 'Avatar' On the Brain

by Caleb Johnson on February 4, 2010 at 05:50 PM

Remember that scene in 'Avatar' when the crippled marine runs for the first time in his new body? We know it brought a tear to your eye. Well, a group of scientists and engineers (think of them as a nerdy version of the Justice League of America) recently gathered at M.I.T. to discuss bringing this concept from the big screen to real life.

According to Singularity Hub, these guys want to create a competition similar to the Ansari X Prize that would expedite breakthroughs in brain-to-machine and brain-to-brain communication. The goal of the recent X Prize Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) Workshop at M.I.T. was to speed this process up. Rod Furlan, an expert in artificial intelligence and participant in the workshop, says the supergroup wants to "...give vision to the blind, new bodies to disabled people and maybe a GPS sixth sense to the willing." That's shooting for the fences. But Furlan doesn't see these possibilities as that far-fetched. The tough part, he says, will be providing incentive for researchers, engineers and scientists to get started on this project. In other words, they'll need to see some dollar signs.


With all that money James Cameron has made, maybe these researchers should hit him up for some donations. We'd be willing to bet he has a few million dollars to spare. After all, it's in the name of science. [From: Singularity Hub, via: Google Blogoscoped and H+ Magazine]

Tags: artificial intelligence, ArtificialIntelligence, avatar, brain, communication, james camerons avatar, JamesCameronsAvatar, mit, Research In Motion, ResearchInMotion, toyota, xprize

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