Operating plants by brain control?
The brain is made up of about 100-billion nerve cells, or neurons, which emit an electrical impulse when interacting. The headset implements a technology known as non-invasive electroencephalography (EEG) to read neural activity.
The use of EEG in medical practice dates back almost 100 years but it is only since the 1970s that the procedure has been used to explore the brain-computer interfaces.
A neuro-headset which interprets the interaction of neurons in the brain and which uses WiFi to connect to a computer is now commercially available. The EPOC, which was developed by the US/Australian neuro-engineering company Emotiv, was primarily designed for computer-based games. It allows the user to manipulate a game or virtual environment naturally and intuitively.
For this purpose they’ve created a brain computer interface that reads electrical impulses in the brain and translates them into commands that a video game can accept and thereby control the game dynamically. The headset can detect more that 30 different expressions, emotions and actions. They include excitement, meditations, tension and frustration; facial expressions such as smile, laugh, wink, shock (eyebrows raised), anger (eyebrows furrowed); and cognitive actions such as push, pull, lift, drop and rotate (on six different axis). The headset doesn’t require a large net of electrodes, or a technician to calibrate or operate it, and comes at a price cheaper than a bottom-of-the-range PC.
The neuro-headset – new attire for operators?
Why can the same technology not be used to operate plants? The only disadvantage is the relative discomfort that operators might experience when wearing the headset for long periods. This disadvantage can be minimised by a simple operating instruction not to wear it when the plant is stable, which should be the majority of the time. But the moment the plant experiences an abnormal situation that requires quick thinking and fast response times from the operator, vital time can be saved when the control system acts on the operator’s thoughts and not his actions. The device will also be helpful during periods where a significant amount of operator action or intervention is required – typically during start-ups and shut-downs.
The headset picks up electrical activity from the brain and sends its wireless signals (commands) directly to the supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system or process computer. Sensors respond to the electrical impulses behind different conscious thoughts, facial expressions and non-conscious emotions, enabling a user’s brain to influence and dictate the operating task directly. The headset also has a gyroscope to detect status changes and has wireless capabilities to communicate with a USB dongle plugged into the same process computer. The gyroscope enables a cursor or camera to be controlled by head movements.
The introduction of such headsets to process control will give a whole new dimension to the human-machine interface hardware and eventually the overall control room design. Maybe the future control rooms will merely consist of one or more digital light processing rear projection display walls or a matrix of thin-bezel LCD screens, a few desks and some chairs. Will future operators be able to open and close valves, start and stop pumps and adjust set points in the plants by just thinking of the action?
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