University's space project goes where no man has gone before (From Gazette)

University's space project goes where no man has gone before

8:00pm Wednesday 6th February 2013 in News By Wendy Brading

THE force has been with scientists from the University of Essex.

They have been working with space agency NASA on a project where they controlled a virtual spacecraft by thought alone.

Using technology called brain-computer interface, they found combining the brain power of two people could be more accurate in steering a spacecraft than by one person alone.

Essex University has built-up an international reputation for its research in this field.

Now it is expanding its work into the new area where tasks are performed by combining the signals of multiple BCI users.

The £500,000 project with NASA’s jet propulsion lab in Pasadena, California, involved two people together steering a virtual spacecraft to a planet using a BCI mouse, developed by the scientists at Essex.