Video: Want to Control Things With Your Mind? Get Some Open Source Hardware

Jedi-style mind control may soon be in your grasp. BCI, or brain computer interface, technology reads the electrical signals in your brain and muscles and uses that to control and manipulate connected items in the real world. The technology is already approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in artificial limbs.

Anyone with an interest in this futuristic tech can explore it. Open BCI, a collective of engineers and artists, has created affordable open source hardware that allows everyone to experiment with creating an interface between their brain and a computer.

"It's really awesome to see people witnessing their own brain activity for the first time," said Conor Russomanno, co-founder of Open BCI.

While the technology can't allow you to convince others that "these are not the droids you're looking for," it can let you control and steer a toy robotic spider using only your mind.

To learn more, check out the video below, from Wired: 

(Image via solarseven/Shutterstock.com)