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SoylentNews is people

posted by CoolHand on Tuesday April 21 2015, @08:34AM   Printer-friendly
from the only-paranoid-if-they're-not-really-out-to-get-us dept.

Yes, it's finally arriving--remote control people:

“Actually, it’s a really basic technology,” says creator Max Pfeiffer, who studies human-computer interactions at Leibniz University of Hanover in Germany.

Indeed. As cool as it sounds, the underlying tech is pretty straightforward. To dictate walkers’ routes, Pfeiffer simply attached electrodes (pilfered from a massage tool purchased on Amazon) to the thighs of 18 volunteers. When activated by a signal from a smartphone, the electrodes stimulated the sartorious, the long, thin muscle that connects the outer pelvis to the inner knee and controls the rotation of the leg. As long as the volunteer is providing forward locomotion, the sensation makes them turn.

Using a smartphone, Pfeiffer trailed his subjects as they walked through the streets with a smart phone connected to the electrodes. A push of the button on his phone caused them to veer right or left. The compulsion to turn wasn’t overwhelming. “One comment from the participants was they always had the feeling that they can just take back control and override the signal,” says Pfeiffer.

Remote control people...paging Philip K. Dick?

 
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  • (Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 21 2015, @08:57AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 21 2015, @08:57AM (#173451)

    Controlling people with smart phones? Old news.
    Angry birds been doing that for years.

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Bot on Tuesday April 21 2015, @09:45AM

    by Bot (3902) on Tuesday April 21 2015, @09:45AM (#173458) Journal

    OK but you forget about the classics [eruptingmind.com].

    --
    Account abandoned.