6/22/2007

Just thinking moves toy train with new technology from Hitachi
International Herald Tribune (AP) June 22, 2007 – HATOYAMA, Japan: Forget the TV remote: A new technology in Japan could let you control electronic devices without lifting a finger simply by reading brain activity. The “brain-machine interface” developed by Hitachi Inc. analyzes slight changes in the brain’s blood flow and translates brain motion into electric signals.

A cap connects by optical fibers to a mapping device, which links, in turn, to a toy train set via a control computer and motor….more.…

Back in 2005 I first wrote about this in: Japanese “mind-teller” machine. Called the “Kokoro-gatari, ” its name could be read in Japanese to mean “brain with a bang” and judging from the faces of the Mr. Happys above, it looks like it.

Ok, ok, that Mr Happy Hat pictured in the hot pink outfit is Shoko Asahara, the death cult mastermind who ordered the 1995 Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway and several other crimes. One of his moneymaking scams was to sell “Happy Hats,” that members could buy to “achieve the ultimate enlightenment.” These caps were an earlier, crude version similar in concept to Hitachi’s “brain-machine interface.”