Simulation: Great Power Technology

June 1st, Children's Day.

Two weeks after the mechanical exoskeleton project was approved and the budget was invested, Zhejiang University's bci (brain-computer interface) laboratory.

A researcher sat down in front of the screen reluctantly, and the two colleagues behind him were swiftly putting on his eeg headgear, and then turned on the controllers one by one, preparing to start the experiment for the day.

"Brother Chen, why is it always me? I really don't look like a guinea pig. Shall we draw lots tomorrow? Whoever draws will do the experiment."

The person he calls Brother Chen is named Chen Li, a double-major doctor of biology and electrical engineering. In the field of bci, he is a genius that has been rare for a hundred years. Of course, this technology has not surpassed it since its birth. One hundred years, but in any case, his talent is obvious to all in the country.

"Zhu, don't struggle. Your egg signal is the weakest in our entire laboratory. Only by testing with you can we achieve the best results."

"Besides, isn't it easy to let you sit here for a day, without looking at the data or calculating the model, just close your eyes and use your brain?"

The person sitting in the chair is called Zhu Xuan. He is also a computer doctor. He has contributed many breakthrough convolutional neural network algorithm models in the bci project of Zhejiang University. However, the experiment has now reached the final correction and adjustment stage. Work has also gradually declined.

As a result, he was naturally treated as a guinea pig. When he arrived at the laboratory every day, he was immediately pushed onto a chair and put on an egg headgear, and began to test their newly developed robotic arm.

The same is true today. Zhu Xuan has already started his day of testing before he even had time to eat breakfast.

Listening to Chen Li's words, he shook his head in dissatisfaction and said:

"You guys are too ruthless. The monkeys who did the experiment in the past did the right thing and gave them bananas. What about me? I've been sitting here all morning, and they don't even give me saliva."

"I really don't understand, what's the difference between me and the monkey?"

"...The monkey has long hair, but you don't."

"What if I have hair too?"

"...Then I'll give you bananas too. Okay, don't bother, the device is connected, close your eyes, I'll put a blindfold on you, and I'll correct your mi signal first."

The so-called mi signal is the motor imagery brain wave signal. This signal occurs when the brain tries to command the muscle group, but the neural pathway is blocked and cannot be transmitted. After capturing this signal through the egg headgear, the brain will input the signal into the decoder. The decoder translates this signal into a mechanical electrical signal according to the mi translation model written by Zhu Xuan and his team, thereby directing the movements of the robotic arm.

Zhu Xuan's arm has been firmly tied to the armrest of the chair, in order to simulate the state of arm disability or loss of arm.

"Every time I sit on this chair, I always have a bad feeling, and I have to wear a blindfold... I always feel that the whip will be pulled in the next second."

"...Come on, Xiaoya, go get the candles we prepared."

"Fuck! You're really playing!"

Zhu Xuan's arm twitched suddenly, and the entire chair jumped by him.

Due to the restraint of the restraint belt, his arm movements were not executed successfully. Instead, the mechanical arm on the side contracted suddenly, almost rubbing Chu Ya who was standing on the side.

"Senior brother, your reaction is too big... The mi signal transmission is normal, the data strength is ok, and the test can be carried out."

"No, I'm not overreacting, I'm afraid that you will actually drop me with candles. I remember you said last time that you want to test the command ability of the reflected signal to the robotic arm in an unconscious state. Now you are doing this, isn't it? Son?"

Chu Ya cast a helpless look at Chen Li, and then said:

"What should I do, Brother Chen, do you still put on the candle?"

"Go, why don't you go, but you have to test the basic operations first. Come on, Zhu, there is an apple in front of you, imagine moving your arm about twenty centimeters to the right, and then reach out to grab the apple. "

"Yes, yes, the location is right, how is it, can you feel it?"

Zhu Xuan on the seat put away his joking expression. Under the blindfold, he had closed his eyes and entered a state of contemplation. Then, the robotic arm began to move.

The speed of the robotic arm is very fast, and the five finger joints are constantly flexing and extending, trying to grab the apple in front of him.

"Very good, you have touched it, can you feel the current signal?"

Zhu Xuan nodded slightly and replied:

"My shoulders feel numb, but it's not easy to re-establish this feeling in the logic system of the brain. I can't understand that this current comes from the robotic arm touching the object. It takes a big circle in the brain to get it. Correct the logic."

"This kind of operation is too counter-intuitive, Brother Chen, can you develop a system that converts pressure signals into tactile signals and writes them back into the brain?"

"I'm working on it, and now the deeploop project is doing this. Isn't this just about to get the budget to overcalculate, and after the overcalculation is done, we can try to solve the electrical signal."

"But you should focus on electrical stimulation now. As long as you have special training, it is not difficult to form a conditioned reflex. Come on, you continue. Now that you have three fingers touching the apple, can you feel the current? Hold tight, The current frequency should speed up."

Zhu Xuan nodded and replied:

"I can feel that I should have touched all five fingers now, and the five pre-buried points have electrical stimulation feedback. The middle finger, thumb, and index finger feedback areas have the highest frequency, which should be consistent with the force logic."

"That's fine. Now lift the apple, does the arm pressure stimulation area respond?"

"There is a reaction, but it is very stimulating and strong. This is not the weight of an apple at all, right?"

Hearing Zhu Xuan's words, Chu Ya and Chen Li looked at each other with joyful expressions on their faces.

Of course, this is not an apple, and now the robotic arm is holding the spherical end of a dumbbell that Chen Li specially found from the gym.

They did this purely to verify the real effect of the fma electrical stimulation feedback system on the robotic arm.

From the current results, trained users like Zhu Xuan can completely judge the object they are grasping through electrode stimulation embedded in other sensory parts of the body without the aid of visual and tactile feedback. of the basic situation.

If after long-term training, a complete set of thinking processing logic is formed for these electrical stimuli, users can even judge the shape of objects directly through the mechanical arm, which will bring a dramatic change to their technology.

Of course, such training must be difficult, because its essence is to smash the inherent logic of human control of limbs, and then re-establish a new set of logic based on machinery, which is even more difficult than learning from infancy. difficulty.

However, for their users, this difficulty is really nothing.

Thinking of this, Chen Li explained:

"It's really not an apple, it's a dumbbell. Zhu, you're learning very fast, so it seems that our system is basically usable. Come on, put the dumbbell down, and we'll test other things."

"...Brother Chen, I've been sitting in this chair for half a month, can I not learn quickly? Wait, what strange things did you put into my hands?"

"This weight, this shape...how do I feel like it's cylindrical? The pressure between each finger is about the same, wait, I'll touch it with another hand."

While speaking, Zhu Xuan moved the other mechanical arm, slowly approaching the object he had already grasped, and began to use one finger to test the shape of the object.

This is a very counter-intuitive and completely different behavior from normal people's touch operation. What he is doing is to use a pressure sensor on a finger to stroke the object on his hand.

After turning his fingers around the object, Zhu Xuan basically had a judgment in his heart.

"I know what it is."

"Cylindrical, about a dozen centimeters long, I can't tell whether it is soft or hard, but it has a slight curvature... First of all, excluding the strange thing that came to my mind first, there is only one answer."

"banana."

"No, Brother Chen, are you really planning to let me eat bananas?!"

Chen Li nodded to him with relief, and then said:

"If you eat bananas, you must eat bananas, but it's not just that simple."

"Come on, now try to peel the banana and put it in your mouth."

"...This is a bit too much, Brother Chen, the movements are too delicate, it's difficult."

"No matter how fine it is, can we expect that there will be no fine movements in the user's life in the future? Peeling bananas is already very daily, and even this can't be done well. How can our brain computers hope to change other people's lives?"

"Stop talking, open your mouth!"