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Scientists prove you can think your truck to a stop
Posted: Aug 2, 2011 11:47 AM | Last Updated: May 31, 2012 02:51 PM

BERLIN -- As George Carlin once said, “when you step on the brake, your life is in your foot’s hands.”

Unless you’re at the Berlin Institute of Technology, that is.

 Scientists there know how to hit the brakes with brain waves instead of feet. 

And their latest research shows that if all brakes were triggered by thoughts rather than by steel-toed Kodiaks, we’d all be a lot better off.

Turns out a driver’s brain is about 13 100ths of a second faster than a driver’s foot.

Researchers at the Berlin Institute for Technology attached electrodes to volunteers’ scalps, and turned the volunteers loose on a driving simulator.

The drivers were asked to stay 66 ft behind the car in front, which kept braking, randomly.
 
The electrodes circumvented the drivers’ feet and applied the brakes at the precise moment that the volunteers decided to brake.
 
And at 65 mph, when the brains hit the binders, stopping distance was shaved by about a dozen feet.
 
The results were reported in the Institute of Physics' Journal of Neural Engineering last week.

Seriously, the results should come as no surprise.

As investigator Benjamin Blankertz told BBC: "It's quite easily explained by the fact that we can tap the driver's intention at the source of the build up of intention in the brain.”

This is the first time that brain waves have been used to help braking but the technique is already used to help paralyzed people control computers, prosthetic limbs and wheelchairs.

The researchers are planning to conduct road trials of their system to test its viability.  

 
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G CURRIE

2011/08/06

at 4:17 PM

Rating
0
19
19
FRIST OF ALL SCRAP THE STEEL TOED BOOTS. I HAVE RARELY WORN THEM AND AT 58 YEARS OLD STILL ONLY PUT THEM ON FOR THE TIME SPENT IN A YARD LOADING OR UNLOADING AND THE PAIN AND SORE TOES I GET FROM THAT BRIEF TIME IS MORE THAN IF I EVER DROPPED SOMETHING ON MY TOES. THIS STUDY WAS A NO BRAINER CAUSE WE ALREADY KNOW THE BRAIN CONTROLS ALL MOVEMENT. YOU HAVE TO BE A MORON TO THINK THAT DRIVERS WOULD ACTUALLY WHERE PADS ON THERE HEAD OR SOME MAGNETIC FIELD HELMET FOR IN THE RARE CASE THEY NEEDED EXTREME STOPPING TIME. HELL I STILL CAN'T WEAR A SEATBELT FOR MORE THAN AN HOUR AND I DRIVE A LOT MORE HOURS PER DAY THAN THAT PLUS I WON'T WEAR A BLUE TOOTH HUNG OFF MY EAR EITHER. NEVER HAD A PROBLEM YET USING A REGULAR CEL PHONE WHEN DRIVING AND HAVE BEEN USING A CEL PHONE SINCE 1993 WHEN I SWITCH OVER FROM A VHF RADIO PHONE. HOWEVER I DON'T DO TEXT MESSAGING.NEVER HAVE. GORD CURRIE

JimW

2011/08/02

at 3:17 PM

Rating
-1
18
19
Yup lets put tired drivers who have been sitting for hours mad at the world using fried cells to stop trucks running 140,000lbs down the road or hills. They can't stop smoking now when using their feet. Couple the using the brain plus any panic thoughts and ?????

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