The Blue Brain Project

  BLUE BRAIN is the name of the worlds first Virtual Brain.That means it is a machine that can think, take decisions based upon past experience and can store things into memory as a normal human brain does.

  IBM in partnership with EPFL is currently developing this Blue Brain.The main aim of the project is to study the neurological diseases and to upload contents of human brain into the virtual brain.

  Within next 25 years we would be able to scan ourselves into Computer.

 What is a virtual Brain? 

  A virtual brain is a machine which can act as a natural brain. It can think, take decisions, respond to the environment and can store things into memory. All this is possible with the help of super computer with high processing power and a huge data storage capacity.

 What is the need of virtual Brain?

   Today we are developed because of our intelligence and knowledge . Intelligence is an inborn quality which cannot be created, some people have this quality so that they can think up to such an extent where others cannot.
But we lost all the intelligence and knowledge of that person after the death. A virtual brain would be helpful so that we can store all his knowledge into it.
 The Second need is memory, as we grow older we start forgetting names, spellings, important schedules in this case a virtual brain will assist us in remembering all this stuffs .
  This concepts appears to be very complex so first we will see how natural brain works?.


Working of natural brain ?

 Our human ability to sense, interpret and to respond is controlled like calculations in computer ,by the magical nervous system. Yes the nervous system is called magical because one cannot see it but it is working inside us with electrical impulses.

 To understand its working, One have to understand its three basic functions.

Sensory Input : When we see, touch a warm surface or even hear something, our sensory cells send a   message straight towards the brain. in this process the brain takes input from the sensory cells.

Interpretation : Interpretation means to understand what we have tasted, seen, or touched. In brain many neurons work together to understand the surrounding.

Motor Output :  Once we have understood the environment. Our brain respond to act according to the environment. This is done via Central nervous system which send message to the respective muscle to act.
Now we will see how this all thing can be done artificially.

 As i said in natural brain the input is taken through  the sensory cells, In this blue brain the input is taken through the artificial neurons which provides the interface between the sensory cells and the supercomputer. In virtual brain the interpretation is done with the help of number of register in similar was as the neuron does. Different status of the register shows different states of brain. The motor output again done by the artificial neurons where it takes input from the super computer and gives command to the sensory cells. In natural brain there are certain neurons which store their status permanently In virtual brain the secondary storage will be used to store the information for life time so that whenever this information need to be accessed, can be done easily.

 Now we have understood the working of virtual brain now we will see how the the contents of human brain will be uploaded into the virtual one.

 For this Nanobots are used. Nanobots are nothing but small robots. This nanobots travel through out our circulatory system. while traveling they will monitor the activity and structure of central nervous system. They will also provide an interface with the computer while residing into the system. They would scan the structure of our brain and provide a complete read out of the connection between each neuron. When this information is entered into the computer. All the data will be uploaded into the computer.

 Current Research Work 

1.  IBM in partnership with EPFL is currently working on this blue brain project. It is estimated that within next 25 years this project will be completed. they have reverse engineer the human brain upto the molecula level to understand the structure so create this Blue Brain.
2. Researchers at Microsoft Labs are creating a database system called MyLifeBits which holds the record of a persons life experience. The main aim of the project is to make this database of human memories in manner of conventional search Engine.

Advantages And Limitations of Virtual Brain 

1. One can remember things without any effort.
2. Decison can be made without the presense of a person
3. Intelligence and knowledge can be used even after the death.
4. The activity of different animals can be understood by interpreting the electrical impulses from their brain.
5.  The major limitation is the threat of viruses.
6. We become dependent upon the computer system.

Hardware and software Requirements :

1. A super Computer with high processing power and Memory. IBM is simulating this BlueBrain on IBM`s Blue Gene Computer.
2. Powerful Nanobots.