China has created a robot with a strange lab-grown human brain.
Called “organoid” – the unusual Frankenstein invention is the latest attempt to create a hybrid machine that can independently perform a number of useful tasks.
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The device is built using specialized technology that combines tissue derived from human stem cells and a neutral chip.
Once inserted, the chip will power robot and teach it to grasp objects as well as avoid certain obstacles, say developers at Tianjin University and Southern University of Science and Technology.
The brain organoid is part of an emerging branch of technology that uses brain-computer interfaces.
Astute developers have made it a priority to find the best way to combine the brain’s electrical signals with external computing power.
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One of the ways they hope the new technology will work is through encoding and decoding simulation feedback through various tests.
They also use low-intensity ultrasound waves to maintain a stable brain base to grow.
Tianjin University called it “the first brain-on-a-chip intelligent open-source information interaction system.”
The university’s vice president Ming Dong told China Daily Science and Technology: “This is a technology that uses an in-vitro cultured ‘brain’ coupled with an electrode chip to form a brain-on-a-chip.”
Li Xiaohong, a professor at Tianjin University called the results so far promising, but noted that they still face problems such as “insufficient supply of nutrients”.
The system is similar to Elon Musk’s Neuralink project in that it uses a hybrid brain-computer interface.
Neuralink, which had its first patient this year, sees a chip being implanted in a person’s brain under the skull.
Once attached, the chip connects your brain waves to an app that can be accessed by doctors.
They hope it will be able to help individuals with neurological diseases.
It comes after Japanese scientists have found a way to attach engineered skin tissue to humanoid robots.
Creepy video of the world’s first robot face carved from human flesh shows the device making a very evil smile.
The scientists, led by Professor Shoji Takeuchi of the University of Tokyo, claim the discovery could bring more mobility to robots, some of which can already move without a human.
What is an organoid?
AN ORGANOID is an artificially grown collection of cells or tissues that resembles an organ.
They are used to mimic the structure, function and cellular complexity of real-life human organs for use in scientific research.
Specialists will use organoids to help study areas such as the brain, retina, kidneys and lungs, as well as whole organ development and disease.
They are a key alternative to real organs as they take a much shorter time to start producing results.
While they massively minimize the risk to humans, organoids are also much better at targeting a specific area of ​​the body that is targeted by treatments or problems.
Experts labeled the organoid invention one of the biggest scientific breakthroughs when it came out in 2013.
The first successful transplantation of an organoid into a human was in 2022.
The patient had ulcerative colitis, which was used to create the organoid.
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