Patent ID: 8396546

Claim:
A machine control device for controlling a machine based on brain signals of a user, comprising: an estimating unit for, by using a first estimation model developed in advance by supervised learning with a plurality of first training sets, estimating, from information of brain signals of the user, which one of a plurality of body movements the user performs or images, each of said plurality of first training sets being constituted by a pair consisting of (i) a body movement performed or imaged by the user and (ii) information of brain signals of the user corresponding to said body movement performed or imaged by the user, each of said plurality of body movements going toward a first to an nth body posture where n is an integer not less than 2; a correct rate estimating unit for estimating a correct rate from said information of brain signals by using a second estimation model developed in advance by supervised learning with a plurality of second training sets, each of said plurality of second training sets being constituted by a pair consisting of (iii) a previously estimated correct rate and (iv) information of brain signals of the user corresponding to said previously estimated correct rate, each correct rate indicating a probability that a body movement estimated by said estimation unit and a body movement performed or imaged by the user match; a judging unit for judging whether or not a correct rate estimated by said correct rate estimating unit exceeds a predetermined threshold value; and a machine control unit for controlling the machine according to a result estimated by said estimating unit, so as to change a posture of the machine between ones of said first to nth postures through at least one intermediate posture therebetween, such that said change between one of said first to nth postures to another of said first to nth postures includes a plurality of substeps of change, the first to the nth postures being respectively associated with the first to nth body postures, wherein: said estimating unit provides an estimation of body movement that the user performs or images to the machine control unit only if said judging unit judges that a correct rate estimated by said correct rate estimating unit exceeds said predetermined threshold value, and if the posture of the machine is not currently identical with the posture associated with the body posture toward which a body movement estimated by said estimating unit goes, the machine control unit changes the posture of the machine by performing a part of said substeps of change toward the posture associated with the body posture toward which the body movement estimated by the estimating unit goes.