Seminar Topics - Brain Computer Interface

Brain-Computer interface is a staple of science fiction writing.  Init's earliest  incarnations nomechanism was thought necessary, as the  technology seemed so far fetched that no explanation was likely.   As more became known about the brain however, the possibility has become more real and the science fiction more technically sophisticated.  Recently, the cyberpunk movement has adopted the idea of 'jacking in', sliding 'biosoft' chips into slots implanted in the skull (Gibson, W. 1984).  

                              Although such  biosofts are still science fiction, there have been several recent steps toward interfacing the brain and computers.  Chief among these are techniques for stimulating and recording from areas of the brain with   permanently implanted electrodes and using conscious control of EEG to control computers. 

                                         

                                        Some preliminary work is being done on synapsing neurons on silicon transformers and on growing neurons into neural networks on top of computer chips.The most advanced work in designing a brain-computer interface has stemmed   from the evolution of traditional electrodes.  There are essentially two main problems, stimulating the brain (input) and recording from the brain (output).

                             

                                        Traditionally, both input and output were handled by electrodes pulled from metal wires and glass tubing.Using conventional electrodes, multi-unit recordings can be constructed from mutlibarrelled pipettes.   In addition to being fragile and bulky, the electrodes in these arrays are often too far apart, as most fine neural processes are only .1 to 2 µm apart.

                                   

 

                      Pickard describes a new type   of electrode, which circumvents many of the problems listed above.  These printed circuit micro-electrodes (PCMs) are manufactured in the same manner of computer chips.  A design of a chip is photoreduced to produce an image on a photosensitive glass plate. This is used as a mask, which covers a UV sensitive glass or plastic film.

   A PCM has three essential elements:

                           1) the tissue terminals,

                           2) a circuit board controlling or reading from the terminals      

                           3) a Input/Output controller-interpreter,  such as a computer.                                     

Engineering Seminar Topics

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AJAX

Ajax, shorthand for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is a web development technique for creating interactive web applications. The intent is to make web pages feel more responsive by exchanging small amounts of data with the server behind the scenes, so that the entire web page does not have to be reloaded each time the user makes a change. This is meant to increase the web page s interactivity, speed, and usability.

The Ajax technique uses a combination of:
XHTML (or HTML) and CSS, for marking up and styling information.
The DOM accessed with a client-side scripting language, especially ECMAScript implementations such as JavaScript and JScript, to dynamically display and interact with the information presented.
The XMLHttpRequest object to exchange data asynchronously with the web server. In some Ajax frameworks and in certain situations, an IFrame object is used instead of the XMLHttpRequest object to exchange data with the web server.
XML is sometimes used as the format for transferring data between the server and client, although any format will work, including preformatted HTML, plain text, JSON and even EBML.
Like DHTML, LAMP and SPA, Ajax is not a technology in itself, but a term that refers to the use of a group of technologies together.

A simple script
function deleterow(id) {

if (confirm( Are you sure you want to delete row number + id + ? )) {

// Set up the request
var xmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
xmlhttp.open( POST , mycheck.php , true);

// The callback function
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange = function() {
if (xmlhttp.readyState == 4) { // implies the request is sucessfull
if (xmlhttp.status == 200) {
var response_stat = xmlhttp.responseXML.getElementsByTagName( deleted )[0].firstChild.data;
if (response_stat == 1) {
alert( Deleted row successfully. );
} else {
alert( Failed to delete row: + xmlhttp.responseXML.getElementsByTagName( error )[0].firstChild.data + . );
}
}
}
}

// Send the POST request
xmlhttp.setRequestHeader( Content-Type , application/x-www-form-urlencoded );
xmlhttp.send( row= + id);
}
}

Robocode

Robocode is an Open Source educational game by Mathew Nelson (originally R was provided by IBM). It is designed to help people learn to program in Java and enjoy the experience. It is very easy to start - a simple robot can be written in just a few minutes - but perfecting a bot can take months or more. Competitors write software that controls a miniature tank that fights other identically-built (but differently programmed) tanks in a playing field. Robots move, shoot at each other, scan for each other, and hit the walls (or other robots) if they aren t careful. Though the idea of this game may seem simple, the actual strategy needed to win is not.Good robots have hundreds of lines in their code dedicated to strategy. Some of the more successful robots use techniques such as statistical analysis and attempts at neural networks in their designs. One can test a robot against many other competitors by downloading their bytecode, so design competition is fierce. Robocode provides a security sandbox (bots are restricted in what they can do on the machine they run on) which makes this a safe thing to do.Topic Taken From Seminar Topics