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What It Feels Like to Fly a Drone with Your Brain


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ACM A.M. Turing Award laureate and former ACM president Vint Cerf.

At the Global Conference on CyberSpace, ACM A.M. Turing Award laureate and former ACM president Vint Cerf moves a drone with his mind.

Credit: surfnet.nl

Vint Cerf has lived a life significantly more interesting than the average person, and Thursday was no exception. Cerf, one of the fathers of the Internet as the co-creator of TCP/IP technology, has stayed abreast of the cutting edge of technology even at age 71.

At the Global Conference on CyberSpace, held at the Hague, Cerf tested technology from the Dutch organization SURFnet that lets a person control a drone’s movements with his or her brain. Cerf wore a headset that scanned his brainwaves to determine his intent.

Cerf could make the drone lift off and briefly hover before it plunged back down onto a table. (A video of the demo was online earlier Friday but is no longer available.) Cerf’s ability to control the drone was limited to instructing it to fly upwards and down. This was probably safest as an audience sat watching, just a few feet away from the drone.

From The Washington Post
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