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Sony Develops Technology To Hack Your Hand 114

An anonymous reader writes "A device created by the University of Tokyo and Sony Laboratories called PossessedHand allows researchers to control a subject's hand via electrical stimulation. While currently being used to teach students to play the koto, a Japanese traditional stringed instruments, just imagine the possibilities! Twilight Zone anyone?"
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Sony Develops Technology To Hack Your Hand

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  • I'll pass (Score:5, Funny)

    by rebelwarlock ( 1319465 ) on Sunday June 26, 2011 @09:26AM (#36575708)
    Sounds cool and all, but we're talking about Sony here. Any 12 year old with a tutorial on sql injection could just walk in and hijack my hand.
    • by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Sunday June 26, 2011 @10:14AM (#36576000)

      So, the new "I didn't look at porn, it's a virus" is now "I didn't jack off, it's a virus"?

    • by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 26, 2011 @10:15AM (#36576004)

      Sony is just looking for a way to install a DRM rootkit on your nervous system.

      Remember that article from a week ago about being able to turn memories on and off in rats with electrical signals [newscientist.com]? Now the next time you hear/view copyrighted media you'll immediately forget what you saw if you stop paying subscription fees for those memories.

      • by Dunbal ( 464142 ) *
        It's not Jesus but Sony that watches you masturbate.
      • by EdIII ( 1114411 )

        Now the next time you hear/view copyrighted media you'll immediately forget what you saw if you stop paying subscription fees for those memories.

        You seem to imply that but just stopping a subscription I could get some of those things out of my head. That might not be a bad thing. Sounds cheaper and less dangerous than a power drill from Home Depot.

    • Even worse, there could be no 12 years old hackers so your hand would be instead controlled by a corporation that rooted our PCs without telling anything just because they don't like you to possibly violate their rights. That is, ethically speaking, a just below average corporation :D

      In general this tech will likely end up with getting a genre of dystopic literature on its own: self inflicted deaths or torture for better cover up of the culprits and stuff like that.

    • by Idbar ( 1034346 )
      I was thinking more along the lines of applications for their internal customer (movies and music branch): politician puppeteer.

      So now they can control signatures on bills, and your hand when you're trying to download anything! Clever!
    • by Anonymous Coward

      Great, now anytime someone gives Sony a hard time they can play a game of "Stop Hitting Yourself".

    • Any other frustrated bad amateur musicians seeing the really cool side to this?

      Despite my best efforts I remain a really bad Guitar player and do even worse on a Ukulele... My neighbours might club together and buy me one ....

  • by Anonymous Coward

    The proof I need to get out of prison...

  • by El_Muerte_TDS ( 592157 ) on Sunday June 26, 2011 @09:28AM (#36575734) Homepage

    Sony DRM is getting out of hand.

  • Damn (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 26, 2011 @09:28AM (#36575736)

    The joke here is way too obvious. I'll pass.

  • Really. I didn't intend to slap you. I don't know what's going on, what with Xbox reading what my hands are doing and Sony telling my hands what to do.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    .... Kung Fu.

  • First they trojan my PC with XCP, now they want to hack my hand!

  • by Jethro ( 14165 )

    Wouldn't it be easier to just ASK someone to pass the salt???

  • Goodbye Viagra!

  • by kikito ( 971480 ) on Sunday June 26, 2011 @09:39AM (#36575794) Homepage

    Dear Sony: I already control my hands with the mighty power of thought.

    I want to control computers with that power now.

    • No, you got it wrong: In Sony Russia, computer controls YOU.

      The idea is not to give you more control over something, the idea is to get more control over you.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • by seven of five ( 578993 ) on Sunday June 26, 2011 @09:48AM (#36575850)
    Playstation plays YOU.
  • Okay, all jokes aside, the stated use of this tech is friggin' awesome! Learning to play an instrument with an instructor that can literally position your hand for you sounds like a pretty novel experience. You could use it to help teach all kinds of musical instruments. Scale it up and you could do some pretty nifty stuff, too. I bet it'd be useful for certain types of physical therapy. You could use it for a force-feedback gaming. With some accelerometers and orientation sensors you could probably use a s

    • All the examples you give are well and good, but since we're not talking about a company or research lab I'd put any trust in, my thoughts go more to the question how this could be abused to gain control over my hands.

    • It looks pretty uncomfortable and inaccurate as of yet. I highly doubt it will properly position your hands for any real musical instrument at this point.

      Developing 'muscle memory' with it while not actually playing the device is hardly the same.

    • I bet it'd be useful for certain types of physical therapy.

      It's already used in physiotherapy / physical therapy. It's called Electro-Muscle Stimulation. It helps to build proprioceptive feedback in patients with injuries. On a side note, if you jack up the dial, it'll turn your extremity into a fully seized claw. Fun times.

  • In training mode, the game controls your hands, which operate the controller.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    Just think of the possible [masturbation] uses.

  • blah blah blah on how this could help humanity and .01% of the world's population with a disability or in need of a prosthetic.

    Tamaki is confident that people will get used to the idea once they see how useful it can be: "We believe convenient technology will overcome a feeling of fear."

    Justifiable fear. What the fuck is with the Japanese penchant for controlling living things remotely? If the damn \. search was half useful you would find cockroaches and human balance having been controlled remotely. Is

    • by mcgrew ( 92797 ) *

      If the damn \. search was half useful

      Google to the rescue. "[search phrase] site:slashdot.org"

      Try this link ;) [google.com]

    • by artor3 ( 1344997 )

      Don't be stupid. Machines don't think. They won't rise up. Ever. That's just scifi silliness, akin to time travel and teleportation. What you should be worried about is how people will use this. People can be a lot more sinister than some fictional robot overlord. This has obvious implications in slave labor and population control. Just install some circuitry in convicted felons to keep them nice and controlled in prison, and a remote kill switch switch should do wonders for recidivism. And at that

  • I wonder if this would be able to help musicians with focal dystonia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focal_dystonia)
  • Perhaps someone could build something that would enable a PS3 and Xbox 360 to communicate using the players hands

  • Recall the movie Shooter http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0822854/ [imdb.com] ?
    No more messy machines needed to set up a "suicide".
    • Makes me wonder if such a technology could actually make one commit suicide.

      It seems implicit here that the subjects actually want to know how to play music; would it work against one's will or is the "hypnosis limitation" applicable?
  • That's just the first thing that comes to mind. I know, not the best movie, but they do try to touch on some interesting ideas. I could definitely see Sony being far more evil than Dexter, too.
  • by jsepeta ( 412566 ) on Sunday June 26, 2011 @10:58AM (#36576252) Homepage

    I know that this technology will end up being used by bullies.

    • I know that this technology will end up being used by bullies.

      On the bright side, lawyers will be cheering on this piece of technology as sexual harassment lawsuit suddenly became a lot more complicated.

      Defendant: "I'm sorry your honor, I did not mean to smack Ms Fanny Widebottom delicious booty. Sony implanted a hand controlling device in me"
      Lawyer : "It's true your honor. My client simply has no control over his hands due to the defective product being hacked."

      I also can't help but think about what this could do to further research into creating zombies.

  • 1) Cut off Sony rooted hand.
    2) Replace with chainsaw.
    3) ????
    4) Kill demons.

  • Sony's hidden agenda here is to control the hand to get out the wallet and buy more Sony Crap.
  • Move the minute hand forward on the Borgday clock.
  • I'll just leave this here.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewQwZroEuec [youtube.com]
  • I wonder if this could be coupled with the 'thinking cap' technology that allows you to control your computer with your thoughts. Control your hand with your mind, even if the nerves in between have been severed. Would obviously work best before atrophy set in.
    • Google for "Functional Muscle Stimulation" research over the last 3 decades. Some recent big milestones too.
      I visited one researcher and saw the neat rows and columns of circular scars where he had taken core samples of
      his own muscles during experiments. n > 100. That is dedication.

  • With technology like this, who needs a girlfriend?
  • "Phone for help? What good is a phone-call, Mr. Anderson, if you are unable to put down the controller?"
  • Now we have the technology to perform a stranger without blood loss to the extremities.
  • http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0138510/ [imdb.com] Makes me think this is not such a good idea. Especially with Sony doing it...
  • It wasn't me, it was my hand.

  • I wonder if it could teach the girls new tricks. :)

  • You probably need a special proprietary Sony hand, because Sony products seem to have exceptional capabilities for getting hacked. I would think our own genetics would make for some tougher hacking than anything Sony puts out or uses, which would obviously call for a third-party hand.

  • I could see this used:

    - to help people move whose nerves are damaged. Combine that with mind readers (ex. Emotiv [emotiv.com], NeuroSky [neurosky.com]) and we're part way there. We'd also need something to send feedback feeling from the severed area to the brain.

    - to help prevent atrophy in people in coma by animating them. (Hmm... could it be used to animate the dead...?)

    - to teach people handy skills (which is what the article suggests), remotely even.

    - as material in sci-fi movies to remote control characters, either to commit he

  • That's great, but I'd like to know if there's any chance of doing this in reverse. That is, a non-invasive method of receiving electrical hand signals and converting them to inputs to a computer. Such a device would be much better than the previous idea I've been wheeling out every now and then on /. as a replacement for electrodes in the brain for computer feedback.

  • Did we start doing this somewhere like 150 years ago with dead frogs? Bruce Lee used this type of electro-stimulation to work out his muscles. All Sony is doing is controlling it with a new control program that makes your hand go to Sony.com and order lots and lots of crappy hardware. :)

  • We apologize to those who have had their hands hacked by our latest security breach.
  • finally my exercise can be done for me...

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