I tried to come up with my own headline… something sensational and strange… but then I realized that CNN’s headline for this story was really as good as it gets.

And you might think that with a headline like “Monkeys Control Robots With Their Minds,” that I’m about to write some goofy or sarcastic article that is barely related to technology.

But you’d be wrong. There’s actually real science at work here, and it has some pretty awesome implications for the future of medicine.

Some scientists at the University of Pittsburgh have implanted electrodes inside the brains of some monkeys. And those electrodes have allowed the monkeys to control a robotic arm with their thoughts. Yes… their thoughts. (Man, is there anything monkeys can’t do?)

From the article:

The arm is controlled by a network of tiny electrodes called a brain-machine interface, implanted into the motor cortex of the monkeys’ brains — the region that controls movement.

It picks up the signals of brain cells as they generate commands to move and converts those into directional signals for the robotic arm, which the monkeys eventually used as a surrogate for their own.

The scientists are talking about some incredible applications for this, chiefly the ability for disabled people to control robotic or prosthetic limbs… with their minds.

Think about that for a second. Let it sink in. In the not-too-distant future, a paralyzed person might be able to still have complete mobility and autonomy using this technology.

Of course, the non-scientists among us are thinking about evil schemes and world domination, where some psycho controls an army of robot soldiers in a bid to take over the Earth. I mean… Terminator anyone? What’s that? You weren’t thinking that? Hmmm, maybe it’s just me. I do watch a few too many sci-fi movies.

But seriously, this is kind of a big deal, though they have yet to test their electrodes in humans. There will, of course, be several more years of testing before anything can be known for sure or be made available to the public. And even longer before able-bodied people like me can buy it at Wal-Mart… but I’m going to start saving my money now, because I’d sure love to have a robotic arm laying around that I can order to change my TV channels or bring me a glass of water by simply thinking it.

(photo credit to Andrew Schwarz & CNN)

(photos by AP)

A robot built by Honda has conducted the Detroit Symphony.

I know.  Hard to believe, right?  Who knew that Detroit even had a symphony?

It’s also hard to believe that a robot conducted that symphony.  Does this mean that conducting isn’t all that hard after all… or that the robot is just super-duper advanced?

The Honda-bot, named ASIMO, is a multi-talented guy.  At 4′ 3″–hey, just like Tom Cruise–he can walk, run, and respond to simple voice commands–hey, just like Tom Cruise!

But seriously, this is the first time ASIMO or any other robot has ever conducted a symphony, so I guess it’s a pretty big deal.  However, the story is a bit deceiving.  Seems that ASIMO isn’t quite as advanced as you might think.  He was only  mimicking what he had seen a human conductor do.  From the article:

As it conducted, it perfectly mimicked the actions of a conductor, nodding its head at various sections and gesturing with one or both hands. ASIMO took a final bow to enthusiastic shouts from the audience.

ASIMO has its limits. ASIMO’s engineers programmed the robot to mimic Charles Burke, the Detroit Symphony’s education director, as he conducted the piece in front of a pianist about six months ago. But it can’t respond to the musicians.

So it’s not as though ASIMO is thinking for himself.  Rather, he’s just regurgitating behaviors that have been modeled for him.  (Tempted to go for a third time on the “Hey, just like Tom Cruise” joke… but I’m worried that would be one time too many).

ASIMO stands for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility.  Boy, that just rolls off the tongue.  Maybe we should add that as a possible name in our Name Our Robot poll.  Or not.

Look, if robots are conducting symphonies, and that’s national news, I think we can all breathe one big sigh of relief about the whole “robots taking over the Earth” concerns.  Of course, if ASIMO is so good at mimicking, I guess all that needs to happen is for some idiot to show him The Terminator or The Matrix and we’d all be in serious trouble.