Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!hoptoad!amdahl!amdcad!decwrl!ucbvax!sdcsvax!gary From: gary@sdcsvax.UUCP Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk Subject: Re: who does it... // State of the art today? Message-ID: <3954@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU> Date: Thu, 24-Sep-87 16:12:29 EDT Article-I.D.: sdcsvax.3954 Posted: Thu Sep 24 16:12:29 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 26-Sep-87 14:00:09 EDT References: <4319@spool.wisc.edu> <3048@hoptoad.uucp> Reply-To: gary@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU (Gary Cottrell) Organization: Institute for Cognitive Science, UC San Diego Lines: 143 In article <3048@hoptoad.uucp> gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore) writes: > >But Seriously, Folks, I don't want to get too hung up in definitions >and review of the literature; I'd rather talk about how we get there >from here (or avoid getting there, if that's better). > >Much of the cyberpunk literature seems to assume direct brain/chip >connections, without even the benefit of an RS232 port (;_). Is there >anyone here who can speak knowledgeably about the current state of >human-nerve-to-electronics interfaces? My impression is that nobody >knows how to get more than a few bits per second through them, in >either direction, and that nobody has trained themself to send or >receive language through such an interface. Or, in other words, CRT's >and keyboards are the state of the art in man/machine interface, and >no clear direction improves on that. >-- >{dasys1,ncoast,well,sun,ihnp4}!hoptoad!gnu gnu@toad.com Au contraire, here is my own work on the output end: SEMINAR _T_h_e _C_o_n_n_e_c_t_i_o_n_i_s_t _A_i_r _G_u_i_t_a_r: _A _D_r_e_a_m _C_o_m_e _T_r_u_e Garrison W. Cottrell Department of Air Science Condominium Community College of Southern California A major problem faced by many Cognitive Scientists has been the latent desire to be a rock'n'roll star, without the requisite talent[1]. Recent advances in connectionist learning mechanisms (Sutton, 1987) have obviated this need. In this work we present the design for the _c_o_n_n_e_c_t_i_o_n_i_s_t _a_i_r _g_u_i_t_a_r[2] - the first air guitar to actually produce the notes played. This work was motivated by the observation that it is not hard for people to play the songs of their favorite groups on their _i_n_t_e_r_n_a_l _p_h_o_n_o_g_r_a_p_h[3] (Kosslyn, 1977). Thus the problem may simply be one of poor mapping hardware. This suggests that augmentation by cognitive models may be useful. PDP models are the obvious candidate for this task, given that they are "neurally-inspired", or "brain-like"[4]. In this talk we present the first true augmentation of the mind by a connectionist model, called Neuro-Acoustic Programming. We use a three-layer system as follows: Electrodes are placed on the subject's scalp using the International 10-20 system and amplified by Grass 7P511 preamplifiers[5]. These are the inputs to the hidden units. The output layer is simply a localist representation of the notes. These are then interfaced with a standard guitar synthesizer. In training, the subject listens to Springsteen while "air guitaring" the lead. The EEG drives the network, resulting in a set of outputs. This result is then compared to the correct output (the _m_u_s_i_c _t_e_a_c_h_e_r signal) at small delta t's using Sutton's temporal difference method, and the errors are back- propagated in the usual way. After two albums, the network ____________________ 9 [1]One approach is to ignore this and form a band anyway. People who took this tack started the punk movement. [2]An _a_i_r _g_u_i_t_a_r is a conceptual representation of a guitar, played in synchrony with actual music. A cult has formed around this endeavor, with many contests currently being held in local bars. [3]Some people claim that they actually _c_a_n'_t play the songs internally as well as they hear them. This is the "bad cognitive needle" problem, or, in the case of Kosslyn's more advanced _i_n_t_e_r_n_a_l _c_a_s_s_e_t_t_e _p_l_a_y_e_r model, "air heads." As long as the sig- nal uniquely specifies the song, it still maps to the right notes, so this technique is useful for the hard of thinking. [4]This is to be contrasted with "neurally-expired", or "brain-dead" models. [5]Other types of Grass amplifiers produce a more "sixties- like" sound. 9 learns to produce the desired notes from the EEG. Of note here is that the hidden units develop a distributed encoding of the _q_u_a_l_i_a of the notes, including coarsely-coded features sufficient to distinguish Jerry Garcia from Conway Twitty[6]. However, myogram noise in the EEG often leads to noise in the output, so it appears necessary to implant arrays of silicon electrodes (developed by Jim Bower at CalTech) directly into the temporal lobes, eliminating interference from muscle signals. In this case, the network must actually be borne to run. 9 ____________________ 9 [6]Some hidden units convert six into nine, the so-called _J_i_m_i _H_e_n_d_r_i_x units (Easy Rider, 1969).