Sony Invention Beams Sights, Sounds Into Brain

[indy007]

link

LONDON (Reuters) - If you think video games are engrossing now, just wait: PlayStation maker Sony Corp (SNE.N). has been granted a patent for beaming sensory information directly into the brain.


The technique could one day be used to create videogames in which you can smell, taste, and touch, or to help people who are blind or deaf.


The U.S. patent, granted to Sony researcher Thomas Dawson, describes a technique for aiming ultrasonic pulses at specific areas of the brain to induce "sensory experiences" such as smells, sounds and images.


"The pulsed ultrasonic signal alters the neural timing in the cortex," the patent states. "No invasive surgery is needed to assist a person, such as a blind person, to view live and/or recorded images or hear sounds."


According to New Scientist magazine, the first to report on the patent, Sony's technique could be an improvement over an existing non-surgical method known as transcranial magnetic stimulation. This activates nerves using rapidly changing magnetic fields, but cannot be focused on small groups of brain cells.


Niels Birbaumer, a neuroscientist at the University of Tuebingen in Germany, told New Scientist he had looked at the Sony patent and "found it plausible." Birbaumer himself has developed a device that enables disabled people to communicate by reading their brain waves.


A Sony Electronics spokeswoman told the magazine that no experiments had been conducted, and that the patent "was based on an inspiration that this may someday be the direction that technology will take us."

Man, that's neat.

[Schaden]

Bet it first gets used for porn...er plus the "stimulation" of the the brains pleasure sensors.

[Nuke33]

Man you're right thats neat.. Doesnt surprise me much though, it's going to happen eventually..

[ASTAC]

bad...technology is going to go too far...soon we will be fighting a million copies of Ah-nold

[Dago]

Originally posted by Schaden
Bet it first gets used for porn...er plus the "stimulation" of the the brains pleasure sensors.

Think about that "having sex" episode between Sandra Bullock and Sly Stallone in "Demolition Man".  

dago

[wombatt]

The U.S. patent, granted to Sony researcher Thomas Dawson, describes a technique for aiming ultrasonic pulses at specific areas of the brain to induce "sensory experiences" such as smells, sounds and images.

Just think what this could mean for scratch and sniff:aok

[Ouch]

What pisses me off about this is that there is absolutely no SCIENCE involved in this.  They don't have a clue how to do it.  If it can be done.  Or anything else.  This is "Pie in the Sky" patent blocking.

Now, if someone somewhere else DOES find a way to do this, SONY OWNS THE RIGHTS TO IT!!  It doesn't matter if he did all the research, design, prototyping, etc himself.

THAT is whats wrong with the US patent system.

Ouch out

[john9001]

aha, and you people laughed at my tin-foil hat, so whos laughing now?

[Skuzzy]

Ouch, you need to study the patent law a bit.  Anyone can file for a patent with any hair brain scheme they can cook up.

BUT, those patents can also be challenged.  A challenged patent forces the patent holder to respond with some level of substance to back up the patent.  Failing to do so will get the patent revoked.

[Chairboy]

Originally posted by indy007
Sony Invention Beams Sights, Sounds Into Brain

That's old news.  We've had television over here for decades.

[indy007]

Originally posted by Ouch
What pisses me off about this is that there is absolutely no SCIENCE involved in this.  They don't have a clue how to do it.  If it can be done.  Or anything else.  This is "Pie in the Sky" patent blocking.

Now, if someone somewhere else DOES find a way to do this, SONY OWNS THE RIGHTS TO IT!!  It doesn't matter if he did all the research, design, prototyping, etc himself.

THAT is whats wrong with the US patent system.

Ouch out

Uhm, they can't do it wireless yet... but they can already do it wired. I need to find my copy of Wired where it was explaining the latest advances in "wetware". Your brain interprets the extra stimuli and sorts it out for you. The information becomes a proverbial 6th sense. They've already been implanting cameras into blind people's iris to give them a semblence of vision. The military application is to wire in nightvision cams for spec ops soldiers.

Niels Birbaumer, a neuroscientist at the University of Tuebingen in Germany, told New Scientist he had looked at the Sony patent and "found it plausible." Birbaumer himself has developed a device that enables disabled people to communicate by reading their brain waves

[Pongo]

I dont know patent law skuzzy, but these things seem to get alot of support.
When they say pointing light at specific areas of the brain..do they mean that certain areas of the eye are mapped to certain areas of the brain or are they really going to beam you cranium with light?

[Pei]

Originally posted by Skuzzy
Ouch, you need to study the patent law a bit.  Anyone can file for a patent with any hair brain scheme they can cook up.

BUT, those patents can also be challenged.  A challenged patent forces the patent holder to respond with some level of substance to back up the patent.  Failing to do so will get the patent revoked.

Which is fine if you have the money to go toe to toe with the big boys in a patent case, but if you are just a small outfit or an individual then you often can't.  The original idea of patents was to encourage innovation, all they are now are a tool for large corporations to limit or eliminate competition.

[Skuzzy]

Pei, at least here, it costs $25 to file a challenge.  It is up to the filer to respond.  They have a set time frame to respond, and if they do not, the patent is summarily revoked.
If they respond, they have to prove the basis of the patent.  Most of the time it requires a working prototype.  They can file for an extension.

Costs do not become a factor unless they can show the basis of the patent.  Then it can get long and lengthy.

[doobs]

I believe the Riddler from batman 2 or 3 has the patent to that.
But I do believe Batman destroyed the brain machine.
maybe Jim Carrey still holds the Patent.