Scientist: 'Hybrid' Computers Will Meld Living Brains with Technology
From: Computerworld - 12/03/2007
By: Sharon Gaudin

University of Arizona professor Charles Higgins believes that in 10 to 15
years "hybrid" computers that use a combination of technology and living
organic tissue will be common consumer products. Higgins has successfully
connected a moth's brain to a robot, using the moth's sight to tell the robot
when something is approaching so it can move out of the way. Higgins says he
started out trying to build a computer chip that could simulate how a brain
processes visual images, but found that the chip would cost an estimated
$60,000. "At that price I thought I was getting lower quality than if I was
just accessing the brain of an insect which costs, well, considerably less,"
Higgins says. "If you have a living system, it has sensory systems that are
far beyond what we can build." The 12-inch-tall robot that relies on a moth's
sight may be considered cutting edge right now, but Higgins believes that it
is only the beginning of organic enhanced computers. "In future decades, this
will not be surprising," says Higgins. "Most computers will have some kind of
living component to them."  

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Links:
Charles M. Higgins
http://www.ece.arizona.edu/~higgins/

Neuromorphic Vision and Robotic Systems
http://neuromorph.ece.arizona.edu/