At the Journal of Neural Engineering (Eurekalert, 28-Jul-2011), we are advised to “Put the brakes on using your brain power”:
German researchers have used drivers’ brain signals, for the first time, to assist in braking, providing much quicker reaction times and a potential solution to the thousands of car accidents that are caused by human error.
The critical question is, why don’t drivers get the memo? Quit yakking, texting, fighting with the back seat. Just drive the bus/car.
Using electroencephalography (EEG) – a technique that attaches electrodes to the scalp –, the researchers demonstrated that the mind-reading system, accompanied with modern traffic sensors, could detect a driver’s intention to break 130 milliseconds faster than a normal brake pedal response.
Driving at 100km/h, this amounts to reducing the braking distance by 3.66 meters – the full length of a compact car or the potential margin between causing and avoiding accidents.
The study, published today, 29 July 2011, in IOP Publishing’s Journal of Neural Engineering, identified the parts of the brain that are most active when braking and used a driving simulator to demonstrate the viability of mind-reading assisted driving.
The driving instructor used to tell people that. It’s also why he had an override brake in the car. Vid: