Sony patent takes first step towards real-life Matrix

IMAGINE movies and computer games in which you get to smell, taste and perhaps even feel things. That's the tantalising prospect raised by a patent on a device for transmitting sensory data directly into the human brain - granted to none other than the entertainment giant Sony.

The technique suggested in the patent is entirely non-invasive. It describes a device that fires pulses of ultrasound at the head to modify firing patterns in targeted parts of the brain, creating "sensory experiences" ranging from moving images to tastes and sounds. This could give blind or deaf people the chance to see or hear, the patent claims.

www.newscientist.com...

What makes them think it isn't already here? Perhaps the "matrix" is where we are really heading.......................at least for the disabled or handiacapped first, use them for energy instead of killing them off.

The matrix heavily ties in with the simulation theory.

When the playstation 3 gets released it will have real life graphics and will be very powerfull. So more realism, thats also a step towards us creating a simulation of life. Maybe the sims 3 on ps3 will simulate life better than anything else? Unless we make a new software..

But that smell taste and thing thing u described wont be anytime soon. Even if it did get released for use in the next 20 years it would be under very tight circumstances.

Not quite the matrix yet! But we are certainly heading that way!

Its a scary thought though aint it....I guess the next step from there could be chips implanted controling these impulses....We would be able to create our fantasties then.

if i could create my fantasies, id be busy forever.




but i dont want anyone to stick me in a cocoon or whatever, like on the matrix.

Previous attempts at stimulating the brain were invasive of course. You know the old example of tapping the guy's brain and his foot kicks.

For them to have a non invasive ultrasound pulse able to stimulate the brain at all would be difficult. Now, consider that different parts of the brain are responsible for different senses. Now you have to go with these waves and hit specific areas. Finally, can you control the stimulus? When you poke the man's brain he kicks. Are we able to poke his brain in such a way that he will kick 3 times at a certain angle and then 4 times the opposite way?

We're talking about sending specific signals here. A certain smell, a specific taste. A detailed image.

Its not all that far fetched, and will not be difficult with today's technology.
Put someone in a CAT scan type of machine, provide external stimulus, measure where the brain is activated by the stimulus, target those regions of the brain with ultrasound pulses, measure the reaction, adjust until you get the desired result.

You know based on the frequency and decibals of sound, a soundwave can cut like a laser, or pulverize material like a bomb? I lived near a facility in Florida that used sound for this purpose, they used ultra-high frequency to cut the concrete pillars that hold up highway overpasses.

So...change the frequency to only stimulate some part of the brain and you will get the desired result.
Kind of like when meditators do "AUM" and use this to increase beta brainwave activity, to the point of Samadhi, or ecstacy, or spiritual euphoria. Or "talking dirty" pushes one toward orgasm...or for some people causes them to be emotionally upset by "dirty words", or using derogatory language incites anger. Or being stuck alone in a sound proof room will cause a person to start exhibiting psychotic symptoms from the sound of their own nervous system humming. Or "white noise", helping soothe children to sleep (as it sounds like the womb).

As for the matrix caccooning people for energy, I think it would be more practical to stick drug addicts in large "hamster wheels" with their drug of choice just out of reach, making them run and run and run for their fix. 56,000 heroin addicts in New Jersey certainly could power the country with this technique...maybe I should patent that!




[edit on 7-4-2005 by Legalizer]

If they were able to "target" the parts of the brain that "trigger" tastes, smells, etc. Why not be able to "target" the parts that recieve visual or auditory messages....essentially a sort of "electronic telepathy." Also kinda reminds me of some of the Montauk stuff

Once the machines can stimulate the pleasure centers of the brain then every last man on the planet will be wanting one. Locked into their playfull stimulus the men will become neural addicts to the drugs of electronic pleasure.

Women will be more difficult to addict, but eventually they too shall fall.

Soon we shall all be Borg. Resistence is futile, You WILL be assimilated.

Just a cheery thought before I head off to bed. Night all

Love and light,

Wupy

Well, if they don't get a Matrix-like system on the market by the time it's time for the Playstation 9, I'ma sue them for false advertising. Remember that one commercial they did back when the PS2 was new?

with the very best computer system out today it is still a far cry from 'real' grafx. they are somehow gonna make a 'realistic environment' with the same technology? i doubt it.

we will see how good this 'cell technology' will stand up to standard computers. they said ps2 would blow them away also and it wasnt ever as good as a computer.

PS3 will be have Pixel Shading 3 technology. Big deal, i've had that capability for a couple of months now

As for this "Patent", it's very foward looking and will never pan out IMO. It's a PR stunt nothing more nothing less.

Everyone is missing the point here...

These video games will be awesome!

IMAGINE movies and computer games in which you get to smell, taste and perhaps even feel things.

Hmmm not sure if Id want to feel getting shot by a bullet since most games are gun games. Smell eh, again gun games= bad smell. Taste? Who eats in videogames?

If it could simulate any feeling, who would have a strong mind and the willpower to stop using it?

It's definitely an awesome advance in technology, but it could be highly addictive.

kinda freaky aint it. a couple of decades from now you will be geting perfume ads on tv and its like those folks at macys who spray you with foul smelling gunk and thats just the least offensive idea i can think of posting (imagine the popups and spam you will be geting)

It might be kind of neat to have a game where you smell the pizza from a restraunt while you are walking through a simulated city blowing up baddies. The smell of rain hitting hot pavement. For entertainment purposes though.

And not someone sending pulses to my brain, whatever good that would do?

I draw the line at being sucked into something like a Matrix, my mind is my own.

You Know i allwyas though the world would go 1 of 2 ways. The Star Trek way, On the Shadowrun way..

Well i looks like Shadowrun is winning here...

For thoese of you that don't know Shadowrun Is a future based RPG game that takes place around 2050. First published back in the late 70's i belive.

There is a tech item in the game called SemiSence. In the game text for the item it was first produced by, You guess it Sony. The game text goes into details about how Very Adictive it is and that some people never leave it.

Granted by now you all are probely like what the heck is this all about?

Well i remember a few years ago there was a News story, About this guy who had made millions in 6 months in the stock market. The Feds decided to check up on this person for fear of inside trading. When they questioned this person he said he was from the future, and he quoted the First chapter word for word from the Prologe of the Shadowrun book.

Maybe he is right, Maybe I'm tired, O well

Just my .02 Cents worth.

If he is realy from the futre, we have some tough times ahead and some realy cool tec.

Zintac

I have been interested in Virtual reality for some time. It would be like a cheap vacation for me. A full blown VR version of something like Serious Sam could be quite an experience with all these monsters coming at you. It would be more fun than the movies, or it could scare the crap out of you. That game in VR wouldn't be for the weak at heart.

When I say this, it brings back to mind movies like Total Recall.

Troy