What was previously accomplished between two rats has now been done with humans. While that doesn’t sound like much of a feat, consider the fact that the accomplishment is brain-to-brain interfacing. A facet of computation neuroscience, this type of communication involves controlling another’s movements purely through thought. Researchers Rajesh Rao and Andrea Stocco replaced the rats in this experiment.

For the experiment, Rao and Stocco linked themselves via Skype from opposite ends of campus at the University of Washington. While Rao wore an electrode-covered skull cap connected to an EEG machine (the ‘output’ channel), Stocco wore a swim cap that was connected to a transcranial magnetic stimulation machine (the ‘input’ channel).

Both viewed the same video game feed. On Rao’s end, a command was to be completed with the keyboard’s spacebar. Instead of physically pressing the button, however, he merely thought of the action. Across campus, a sensor in the swim cap worn by Stocco stimulated his motor cortex, causing his hand to move in accordance with the Skype signal sent by Rao. The researchers hope two-way communication will eventually be possible, with theoretical applications of helping the disabled or landing a plane through an incapacitated pilot.

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An animated short entitled ‘Talking of Tomorrow’ proposes two types of technology will be commonplace among executives of the future. Made in either 1960 or 1962, the cartoon lead works for an “interspace engineering company” and communicates purely through video phone. Crazy idea, huh?

Future-retro shorts like this one were common in the mid-20^th century. The thriving economy of the era led to manufacturing booms and rampant advertising, the two catalysts of the popular interest in innovation. Bell Telephone Labs were at the cutting edge of communication technology – at least according to this animated short.

The film speaks of “business materials” being transmitted via “telephonic machines.” This is presumably the precursor to the fax machine. The idea of video conferences presented by the short could be seen as the original Skype. Are shorts like this one prophetic or simply following the logical growth of technology?

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Interacting with someone via Skype can be a pretty lonely activity. You can see and hear the other person, but never really feel like they are right there with you. A team of researchers at Stanford University in California wants to use synchronized motion to put some personal interaction back into video chats. Their research revolves around motorized flat-screen computer monitors that move around in concert with the speaker’s own movements.

The researchers, working at Stanford’s Center for Design Research, attached motors to a monitor and programmed it to nod, shake side-to-side (as in “no”) and jostle about to signify laughing – all mirroring a user’s movements. A robotic arm is incorporated to reach out and make an attention-grabbing noise when necessary, the result of previous research which showed that humans respond strongly to an actual arm waving rather than a video of one and an actual real-time sound rather than a recording of one.

Overall, it may seem like useless science – but this technology actually has powerful implications for remote workers in the future. People who work from home or from geographically distant offices often suffer because they are treated as though they are not part of the team. Monitors which move as though they are using human gestures would help to make those remote workers seem more physically connected – especially if they are atop whole-body telepresence robots that allow users to “move” around in physical space just as if they were really there.

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