U of W researchers show off brain-controlled humanoid bot

We were fairly certain we'd reached the apex of human-computer interfacing when that 14-year old kid started blasting Space Invader baddies using only his mind, but we were oh so very wrong. Some University of Washington researchers have managed to jack a grad student into their humanoid robot and perform minor tasks. The big news is that this time, unlike that MRI-based Asimo control we saw earlier this year, the brain waves are being read by a mere cap with 32 electrodes on it, meaning the project uses much messier brain data to control the bot. Because of the type of brain readings they're getting, the bot is semi-autonomous, using human control for making the decisions based on video cameras, but managing the actual mechanics of the motions on its own. Right now the bot can only manage to pick up simple shapes and move them to another location, but the eventual goal is a human-controlled robot that can function in human environments, learn from its surroundings and perform meaningful tasks for its human masters.