Let‘s Know: Blue Brain

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International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering

Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459,ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 3, March 2014)

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Let‘s Know: Blue Brain

Prof. Sandeep Khanna

1

, Nikhil Vijay Patil

2

1_{Asst Professor, Pdm. Dr. V. B. Kolte College of Engineering, Malkapur Dist. Buldhna (M.S.) India.} 2_{M.E.First year student, Pdm. Dr. VBKCOE, Malkapur Dist. Buldhna (M.S.) India.} Abstract— Human Brain is the most important and

valuable creation of God. Human Brain is processor of the body with storage but when the person is dead then the knowledge and intelligence of person also lost with that body, so solution for it to have the artificial brain that can hold the brain content then the knowledge can be preserve after the death of person.

Keywords— Artificial Brain, Blue Brain, Simulated Brain

I. INTRODUCTION

Human brain is most important part of body. Intelligence because of the brain.We are developed because we can think, that other animals can not do .But we loss the knowledge of a brain when the body is destroyed after the death of person. That knowledge might have been used for the development of the human society. What happen if we create a brain and upload the contents of natural brain into it.Blue brain –The name of the world‘s first virtual brain. That means a machine that can function as human brain. Scientists are in research to create an artificial brain that can think, response, take decision, and keep anything in memory. The main aim is to upload human brain into machine. So that man can think, take decision without any effort. After the death of the body, the virtual brain will act as the man .So, even after the death of a person we will not loose the knowledge, intelligence, personalities, feelings and memories of that man that can be used for the development of the human society. Human brain is complex than any circuitry in the world. All the research followed the nature. Here also the Scientists are following the nature, firstly understanding the natural brain structure then developing the artificial one. IBM is now in research to create a virtual brain named Blue brain.

A. Human Brain

Every animal we can think, mammals, birds, reptiles, fish has brain but human brain is unique. It gives the power to speak, imagine and problem solving capacity. It is truly an amazing organ. Our brain, spinal-cord, peripheral nerves makeup complex, integrated processing & control system known as Central nervous System. It controls conscious and unconscious facet of life [4].

B. Blue brain

The Blue Brain Project is an attempt to create a synthetic brain by reverse-engineering the mammalian brain down to the molecular level. The aim of the project, founded in May 2005 by the Brain and Mind Institute of the École

Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in

Switzerland, is to study the brain's architectural and functional principles. Goals of the project are to gain a complete understanding of the brain and to enable better and faster development of brain disease treatments.

The project is headed by the founding director Henry Markram and co-directed by Felix Schürmann and Sean Hill. The research involves studying slices of living brain

tissue. Data is collected about all the many

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different neuron types. This data is used to build biologically realistic models of neurons and networks of neurons in the cerebral cortex. The simulations are carried out on a Blue Gene running Michael Hines's NEURON software, supercomputer built by IBM. Hence the name ‗Blue Brain‘[2].

Figure I. Idea Of Blue Brain

C. Virtual Brain

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It can think like brain, take decisions based on the past experience, and response as the natural brain. It is possible by using a super computer, with a huge amount of storage capacity, high processing power and an interface between the human brain and this artificial one .Through this interface the data stored in the natural brain can be up loaded into the computer. So the knowledge, intelligence of anyone can be kept and used for ever, even after the death of the person.

D. Need of virtual brain

We are developed because of our intelligence. Intelligence is the inborn quality of any person .Some people have this quality ,so that they can think up to such an extent where other can not reach .Human society always need such kind of intelligence but the intelligence is lost along with the body after the death. The virtual brain is a solution for it. The brain and intelligence will alive even after the death.

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We often face difficulties in remembering things such as people's names, their birthdays, and the spellings of words, proper grammar, important dates, history facts, etc. In the busy life every one want to be relaxed .Virtual brain may be the solution for it. We will be able to upload brain content into computer.

Figure II. Brain On Chip

II. WORKING OF THE SYSTEM

A. How it is possible?

To build a simulated or artificial brain requires a vast amount of information about this complex organ, starting from the basic unit neuron & building up to complex network connection between them that produces perception and cognition. Perception is the organization, identification & interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand environment. Cognition is the process by which sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered and used.

The most promising is the use of very small robots, or nanobots. These robots will be small enough to travel throughout our circulatory systems. Traveling into the spine and brain, they will be able to monitor the activity and structure of our central nervous system. Nanobots could also carefully scan the structure of our brain, providing a complete readout of the connections between each neuron. They would also record the current state of the brain. This information, when entered into a computer, could then continue to function as Human brain. All that is required is a computer with large enough storage space and high processing power. Many people believe firmly those we posses a soul, while some very technical people believe that quantum forces contribute to our awareness. But we have to now think technically. Note, however, that we need not know how the brain actually functions, to transfer it to a computer. We need only know the media and contents. The actual mystery of how we achieved consciousness in the first place, or how we maintain it, is a separate discussion.

Really this concept appears to be very difficult and complex for us. For this we have to first know how the human brain actually work.

B. Working of natural brain

The human ability to feel, interpret and even see is controlled, in computer like calculations, by the magical nervous system. Yes, the nervous system is quite like magic because we can't see it, but its working through electric impulses through your body.

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Sensory input:

When our eyes see something or our hands touch a warm surface, the sensory cells, also known as Neurons, send a message straight to our brain. This action of getting information from our surrounding environment is called sensory input because we are putting things in our brain by way of our senses.

Interpretation:

Interpretation of things we have felt, tasted, and touched with our sensory cells, also known as neurons, into responses that the body recognizes. This process is all accomplished in the brain where many, many neurons work together to understand the environment.

Motor Output:

Once our brain has interpreted all that we have learned, either by touching, tasting, or using any other sense, then our brain sends a message through neurons to effecter cells, muscle or gland cells, which actually work to perform our requests.

How we see, hear, feel, smell, and take decision: Nose:

Once the smell of food has reached our nose, which is lined with hairs, it travels to an olfactory bulb, a set of sensory nerves. The nerve impulses travel through the olfactory tract, around, in a circular way, the thalamus, and finally to the smell sensory cortex of our brain, located between our eye and ear, where it is interpreted to be understood and memorized by the body.

Eye:

Seeing is one of the most pleasing senses of the nervous system. This cherished action primarily conducted by the lens, which magnifies a seen image, vitreous disc, which bends and rotates an image against the retina, which translates the image and light by a set of cells. The retina is at the back of the eye ball where rods and cones structure along with other cells and tissues covert the image into nerve impulses which are transmitted along the optic nerve to the brain where it is kept for memory.

Tongue:

A set of microscopic buds on the tongue divide everything we eat and drink into various kinds of taste: bitter, sour, salty, spicy and sweet.

These buds have taste pores, which convert the taste into a nerve impulse and send the impulse to the brain by a sensory nerve fiber. Upon receiving the message, our brain classifies the different kinds of taste. This is how we can refer the taste of one kind of food to another.

Ear:

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Once the sound or sound wave has entered the drum, it goes to a large structure called the cochlea. In this snail like structure, the sound waves are divided into pitches. The vibrations of the pitches in the cochlea are measured by the corti.This organ transmits the vibration information to a nerve, which sends it to the brain for interpretation and memory [8].

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Figure III. How Blue-Brain Works

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C. Blue Brain Simulation

Table I.

Comparison Of Simulated Brain With Natural Brain

Particular Natural Brain Simulated Brain

Sensory Input

The body receives the input by the sensory cells. These sensory cells produces electric impulses

which are read by the neurons .The neurons transfer these electric impulses to the brain.

In a similar way the artificial nervous system can be created. The scientist has already developed artificial

neurons

Interpretation

The electric impulses received by the brain from the neurons are interpreted in the brain .The interpretation in the brain is accomplished by the

means of certain states of many neurons.

The interpretation of the electric impulses received by the artificial neuron can be done by means of a set of

register .The different values in these register will represent different states of the brain.

Motor Output

Based on the states of the neurons the brain sends the electric impulses representing the responses which are further received by the effecter cell our body to respond. The sensory cells of which part of

our body is going to receive that, it depends on the state of the neurons in the brain at that time.

Similarly based on the states of the register the output signal can be given to the artificial neurons in the

body which will be received by the effecter cell.

Storage of Information

There are certain neurons in our brain which represent certain states permanently. When required these state is interpreted by our brain and

we can remember the past things. To remember thing we force the neurons to represent certain

states of the brain permanently or for any interesting or serious matter this is happened

implicitly.

It is possible to store the data permanently by using the secondary storage. In the similar way the required states of the registers can be stored permanently. And when required these information can be retrieved and

used.

Processing of Data

When we take decision, think about something, or make any computation, Logical and arithmetic calculations are done in our neural circuitry .The

past experience stored and the current input received are used and the states of certain neurons

are changed to give the output.

In a similar way the decision making can be done by the computer by using some stored states and the received input and by performing some arithmetic

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D. Project Development

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Scientist has developed first single cellular cell by 2005.In November 2007, the project reported the end of the first phase, delivering a data-driven process for creating, validating, and researching the neocortical column. The first artificial cellular neocortical column of 10,000 cells was built by 2008. By July 2011 a cellular mesocircuit of 100 neocortical columns with a million cells in total was built. A cellular rat brain is planned for 2014 with 100 mesocircuits totaling a hundred million cells. Finally a cellular human brain is predicted possible by 2023 equivalent to 1000 rat brains with a total of a hundred billion cells [2].

Figure V. Project Development

E. Hardware and Software Requirement

1. A Blue-Gene super computer running Michael Hines's NEURON software.

2. Memory with a large storing capacity. 3. Processor with a high processing power.

4. A program to convert the electric impulses from the brain to input signal, which is to be received by the computer, and vice versa.

5. Very powerful nanobots to act as the interface between the natural brain and the computer.

III. ADVANTAGES AND LIMITATIONS

A. Advantages

1. Human Being can remember things without any effort. 2. Decision can be made without the presence of a person. 3. Even after the death of a person his intelligence can be used.

4. The activity of different animals can be understood. That means by interpretation of the electric impulses from the brain of the animals, their thinking can be understood easily.

B. Disadvantages

Further, there are many new dangers these technologies will open. We will be susceptible to new forms of harm.

1. We will become very dependent on computer systems. 2. Social Threats may use this against society.

3. Computer viruses will become headache.

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