Captain Cyborg Lives!. Robots 1: Humans 0 [The Register]

Professor Kevin Warwick, of the University of Reading, is working on a means of capturing the motions of one human and replaying them in another. This was one of the tech concepts in the book Hardwired. It was referred to as "wired reflexes", and was one of the many technologies that lived in that world. One of the issues they had was that the creator's biometrics didn't always match that of the end user, so the moves of a 5'5" 150 lb martial arts expert didn't always translate well into the body of a 6' tall steroid popping 250 lb person. Interesting to see technology finally catching up with a book that came out in 1989.

Possible (ab)uses:

• Lockdown in prisons. Get a prisoner to go fetal for a period of time when you need to transport them or during riots.
• Teaching muscle memory based skills to large groups of people quickly. By gently guiding them through the moves (who says the impulse has to be set to full strength?) you can get a large group to quickly master basic skills or learn new, more advanced moves.
• To directly stimulate the pleasure center, much like the Wire described in Niven's Ringworld series of books.
• To remotely control  a device that in form matches a human. Researchers have already managed to get monkeys to control cursors with the use of brain implants, why not have people contolling robots, for the ultimate in telepresence.

UPDATE: New Scientist article with counterpoint.

11:14:24 AM