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Remote Control for Humans Being Tested

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Thu, 27 Oct 2005 14:23:06 -0500

Remote Control for Humans Being Tested

 

 

 

 

Remote Control for Humans Being Tested

 

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

 

By Yuri Kageyama

 

ATSUGI, Japan — We wield remote controls to turn things on and off,

make them advance, make them halt. Ground-bound pilots use remotes to

fly drone airplanes, soldiers to maneuver battlefield robots.

 

But manipulating humans?

 

Prepare to be remotely controlled. I was.

 

Just imagine being rendered the rough equivalent of a radio-controlled

toy car.

 

Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., (search) Japans top telephone

company, says it is developing the technology to perhaps make video

games more realistic. But more sinister applications also come to mind.

 

I can envision it being added to militaries' arsenals of so-called

" non-lethal " weapons.

 

A special headset was placed on my cranium by my hosts during a recent

demonstration at an NTT research center.

 

It sent a very low voltage electric current from the back of my ears

through my head — either from left to right or right to left,

depending on which way the joystick on a remote-control was moved.

 

I found the experience unnerving and exhausting: I sought to step

straight ahead but kept careening from side to side. Those alternating

currents literally threw me off.

 

The technology is called galvanic vestibular stimulation (search) —

essentially, electricity messes with the delicate nerves inside the

ear that help maintain balance.

 

I felt a mysterious, irresistible urge to start walking to the right

whenever the researcher turned the switch to the right. I was

convinced — mistakenly — that this was the only way to maintain my

balance.

 

The phenomenon is painless but dramatic. Your feet start to move

before you know it. I could even remote-control myself by taking the

switch into my own hands.

 

Full story:

 

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,173500,00.html

 

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