The Blue Brain Project aims to create a virtual brain by simulating the brain on a supercomputer. It was started in 2005 as a collaboration between IBM and the Brain Mind Institute in Switzerland. The project uses the IBM Blue Gene supercomputer and neuron simulation software to model brain circuits at the molecular level with the goal of understanding brain function and treating neurological diseases. The Blue Brain simulation has shown flashes of activity resembling those in natural brains, demonstrating its potential to provide insights into human consciousness.
2. Contents
ī§ Introduction
ī§ ANNâs and BNNâs
ī§ What is blue brain
ī§ What is virtual brain
ī§ Blue brain objectives
ī§ How blue brain works
ī§ Blue brain power
ī§ Artificial brain
ī§ Benefits of blue brain
ī§ Conclusion
ī§ References
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3. Introduction
ī§ The Blue Brain Project was started and successfully
carrying over by IBM (International Business Machines)
and the main objective of this project is to create a
virtual brain.
ī§ Blue Brain Technology was first framed out in the year of
2002 by Henry Markhram. He founded the Brain Mind
Institute at EPFL that stands for Ãcole polytechnique
fÊdÊrale de Lausanne and after that in 2005,EPFL and
IBM agree to launch Blue Brain Project.
ī§ IBM installs Blue Gene - The 8th super computer in the
world and the project named after this super computer.
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4. 4
ī§
ī§ The project is headed by the founding director Henry
Markram and co-directed by Felix schurmann and Sean
Hill.
ī§ This project is developed with help of Blue gene
supercomputer and Michael Hines's NEURON software,
the simulation does not consist simply of an artificial
neural network, but involves a biologically realistic model
of neuron.
ī§ Human brain is the most valuable creation of God.
ī§ The man is called intelligent because of the Brain, But
we loss the knowledge of a brain when the body is
destroyed after the death .
ī§ âBLUE BRAINâ- The name of the worldâs first virtual
brain. That means a machine that can function as human
brain.
6. Artificial Neural Network(ANNâs)
ī§ The ANN is an efficient information processing
system which resembles in characteristics with
biological neural network
ī§ ANNâs posses large no. of highly interconnected
processing elements called nodes(neuron), Each
node is connected with other by a connection link.
ī§ Each connection link is associated with weights
which contains information about the input signal,
This information is used by the neuron network to
solve a particular problem.
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9. Comparison between ANN and BNN
ī§ Speed : The execution in the ANN is of few
nanoseconds whereas in the case of BNN it is a few
milliseconds.
ī§ Processing : The BNN can perform massive parallel
operations simultaneously, The ANN can also
perform several parallel operations simultaneously,
but in general the ANN process is faster than that
of brain.
ī§ Tolerance : The biological neuron possesses fault
tolerance capability whereas the artificial neuron
has no fault tolerance.
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10. WHAT IS BLUE
BRAINī§ The IBM is now developing a virtual brain known as the
BLUE BRAIN.
ī§ It would be the worlds first virtual brain. Within 30 years,
we will be able to scan ourselves into the computers.
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11. EXAMPLE OF BLUE
BRAIN
ī§ A very good example of utilisation of blue brain is the case
"short term memory".
ī§ A another situation is that when a person gets older, then
he starts forgetting or takes a bit more time to recognise
the things.
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13. WHAT IS VIRTUAL BRAIN
ī§ A machine that can function
as brain .
ī§ It can take decision.
ī§ It can think.
ī§ It can respond.
ī§ It can keep things in memory.
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14. WHY WE NEED VIRTUAL BRAIN
ī§ To upload contents of the natural brain into it .
ī§ To keep the intelligence , knowledge and skill of any person
for ever .
ī§ To remember things without any effort .
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15. BLUE BRAIN PROJECT OBJECTIVES
ī§ The project will search for insights into how human beings
think and remember.
ī§ Scientists think that blue brain could also help to cure the
Parkinson's disease.
ī§ The brain circuitry is a complex state of flux, the brain
rewiring itself every moment of its existence. If the
scientists can crack open the secret of how and why the
brain does it, the knowledge could lead to new breed of
supercomputers.
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16. UPLOADING HUMAN BRAIN
ī§ The uploading is possible by the use of small robots
known as the nanorobots.
ī§ These robots are small enough to travel through our
circulatory system.
ī§ Traveling into the spine and brain, they will be able
to monitor the activity and structure of our central
nervous system.
ī§ They will be able to provide an interface with
computer that is as close as our mind can be while
we still reside in our biological form . 16
18. UPLOADING HUMAN BRAIN
(CONTâĻ.)
ī§ Nanorobots could also carefully scan the structure of
our brain, providing a complete readout of the
connection.
ī§ This information, when entered into a computer,
could then continue to function as us.
ī§ Thus the data stored in the entire brain will be
uploaded into the computer.
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19. HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE
REQUIRMENT
ī§ A Super computer.
ī§ Memory with a very large storing capacity.
ī§ Processor with a very high processing power.
ī§ A program to convert the electric impulses from the
brain to input signal, which is to be received by the
computer and vice versa.
ī§ Very powerful Nanobots to act as the interface
between the natural brain and the computer.
ī§ The Blue Brain has some 8,000 processors which
map one or two simulated brain neurons to each
processor, making the computer a replica of 10,000
neurons. 19
20. The "Blue Brain" & Human
Consciousness
ī§ "Blue Brain" offer a better understanding of human
consciousness.
ī§ Itâs an actual âcomputer brainâ that may eventually
have the ability to think for itself.
ī§ When it was first fed electrical impulses, strange
patterns began to appear with lightning-like flashes
produced by âcellsâ that the scientists recognized
from living human and animal processes. "It
happened entirely on its own,"
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21. The âBlue Brainâ & Human
Consciousness
(CONT..)
ī§ This helped the scientists to understand the actual
processing of the brain which arises the concept of
âBlue brainâ.
ī§ Blue brain acts as a computer that would operate at
inconceivable speeds â something fast enough to
simulate the human brain.
ī§ A Blue brain aims to unlock the secrets of brain by
using a supercomputer.
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22. FLASHES OF ACTIVITY
ī§ Blue Brain started
producing flashes of
activity that scientists
recognized from
measurements of natural
brain behavior on its
very first day. "It
happened entirely on its
ownâ.
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23. BLUE BRAIN POWER
ī§ The human brain has 100 billions, nerve cells that
enable us to adapt quickly to an immense array of
stimuli.
ī§ Blue brain is a technology that uses âBlue Geneâ a
supercomputer capable of processing 228 TFLOPS.
ī§ The main aim of blue brain is to build a software
replica or template which could reveal many existing
aspects of the brain circuits ,memory capacity , and
how memories are lost.
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24. BLUE BRAIN POWER(CONTâĻ)
ī§ The modeling is also able to work out best way to
compensate and repair error circuits .
ī§ The blue brain model can be used to detect and test
treatment strategies for neurological diseases.
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25. EXPERIMENTS ON BLUE BRAIN
ī§ Scientists rely on computer models to understand
the toughest concepts in science.
ī§ A computer model is being designed to take on the
human brain.
ī§ A generic template is build which allows us to
reconstruct a brain according to any specifications.
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26. 'Blue Brain': An Artificial Brain
Comes To Life In Switzerland
ī§ The machine is beautiful as it wakes up â it means it
works in a fine way when started. Nerve cells flicker
on the screen , along with that electrical charges are
produced.
ī§ This piece of hardware consists of about 10,000
computer chips that act like real nerve cells.
ī§ The simulation was created at the Technical
University in Lausanne, Switzerland, where 35
researchers participate in maintaining this artificial
brain.
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27. 'Blue Brain': An Artificial Brain
Comes To Life In Switzerland
ī§ It runs on one of the world's most powerful
supercomputers.
ī§ The goal is to build a much bigger electronic thinking
machine - one that would ultimately replicate the
human brain .
ī§ "Blue Brain," is the most radical attempt so far to
investigate the mystery of consciousness.
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29. BLUE BRAIN MODEL
VISUALISATION
ī§ The representation shows
the part of the brain which
has been modeled using a
supercomputer.
ī§ The visualization is part of
an ambitious project to
create a biologically
accurate, functional model
of the brain using IBM's
Blue Gene supercomputer.
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30. RIDDLE OF CONSCIOUSNESS
ī§ A human brain consists
of 100 billion nerve cells.
A supercomputer
simulating an organ
using current technology
would produce a virtual
human brain.
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31. BLUE BRAIN SIMULATION
ī§ The Blue Brain simulation
uses one microprocessor
for each of the neurons.
ī§ It helps to build a brain
microcircuit, in order to
scale it in human brain.
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32. BENEFITS OF BLUE BRAIN
ī§ It acts as a supercomputer.
ī§ Improvements in processing, speed and memory
could make entire human brain simulated.
ī§ Things could be remembered without any effort.
ī§ Use the intelligence of the person after death.
ī§ It can make decisions entirely of its own.
ī§ Allowing the deaf to hear via direct nerve simulation.
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33. DISADVANTAGES OF BLUE BRAIN
ī§ We become dependent upon the computers.
ī§ Another fear is found with respect to human cloning.
ī§ A very costly procedure of regaining the memory
back.
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34. CONCLUSION
ī§ We shall be able to transfer ourselves into the
computer at some point.
ī§ Eventually aim of applying terrific computer power to
the simulation of an entire brain.
ī§ Very soon this technology will be highly accepted
whole over the world.
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35. References
ī§ âEngineering in Medicine and Biology Societyâ, 2012. EMBS
2012. 30th Annual International Conference of the IEEE
ī§ Henry Markram, âThe Blue Brain Projectâ, Nature Reviews
Neuroscience 2013 February.
ī§ Simulated brain closer to thought BBC News 22 April 2013.
ī§ Blue Gene: http://www.research.ibm.com/bluegene
ī§ The Blue Brain Project: http://bluebrainproject.epfl.ch
ī§ Blue Gene: http://www.research.ibm.com/bluegene
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