William Grey Walter facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
William Grey Walter
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| Born | 19 February 1910 Kansas City, Missouri, United States
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| Died | 6 May 1977 (aged 67) |
| Citizenship | United States (birthplace), United Kingdom |
| Known for | Brain Wave, Delta wave, Alpha wave, Autonomous robot |
| Spouse(s) | Vivian Dovey |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Robotics, neurophysiology |
William Grey Walter was a brilliant scientist born in the United States who later became a British citizen. He was a pioneer in understanding the brain and building some of the very first robots. His work helped us learn a lot about how our brains work and how machines can imitate life.
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Who Was William Grey Walter?
William Grey Walter (born February 19, 1910 – died May 6, 1977) was an American-born British scientist. He specialized in neurophysiology, which is the study of the nervous system. He was also a cybernetician, meaning he studied how living things and machines control themselves and communicate. Plus, he was a robotician, someone who designs and builds robots.
Early Life and Learning
William Grey Walter was born in Kansas City, Missouri, USA, on February 19, 1910. His father was a British journalist, and his mother was an American journalist. When he was five years old, his family moved to England.
He went to Westminster School and then studied at King's College, Cambridge. He was very interested in both classic subjects and science. After university, he worked in hospitals in London and Bristol, doing research on the brain. He also traveled to other countries like the United States and the Soviet Union for his research.
Walter was interested in ideas about how society could be organized fairly. In 1970, he had a serious accident that affected his brain. He passed away seven years later, on May 6, 1977.
Exploring Brain Waves
When Walter was young, he was inspired by the work of Ivan Pavlov, a Russian scientist. Pavlov studied how animals learn and react to things. Walter also visited Hans Berger, who invented the electroencephalograph, or EEG machine. An EEG machine measures the electrical activity in your brain.
Walter made his own improved versions of the EEG machine. These machines could detect different types of brain waves. He found fast waves called alpha waves and slow waves called delta waves, which are seen during sleep.
Discovering Brain Rhythms
In the 1930s, Walter used his EEG machines to make important discoveries. He worked at the Burden Neurological Institute in Bristol. He was the first to figure out where the strongest alpha waves came from in the brain. He also showed that delta waves could help doctors find brain tumours or areas causing epilepsy.
He even created the first brain mapping machine based on EEG. This machine used special screens to show where brain activity was happening.
During the Second World War, Walter worked on radar and guided missiles. This experience might have influenced his ideas about how brain activity works.
Brain Activity and Consciousness
In the 1960s, Walter discovered something called the contingent negative variation (CNV). This is a tiny electrical signal that appears in the brain about half a second before a person consciously decides to make a movement. This discovery made scientists think deeply about what consciousness and free will really mean. It showed that our brains might start preparing for actions even before we are fully aware of them.
Walter's experiments with stroboscopic light, described in his book The Living Brain, also inspired artists. One artist, Brion Gysin, used these ideas to create a device called the Dreamachine. This device has evolved into electronic devices known as mind machines.
Building Clever Robots
William Grey Walter is most famous for building some of the very first electronic autonomous robots. He wanted to show that even a few connections between "brain cells" (or electronic components) could lead to very complex behaviors. He believed the secret to how the brain works was in its connections.
The Tortoise Robots: Elmer and Elsie
Between 1948 and 1949, he built his first robots, which he called Machina speculatrix. He named them Elmer and Elsie. People often called them "tortoises" because of their shape and slow movement. These three-wheeled robots could move towards light. They could also find a recharging station when their batteries were low.
In one experiment, Walter placed a light on a robot's "nose" and watched it look in a mirror. He wrote that the robot "began flickering, twittering, and jigging like a clumsy Narcissus." He suggested that if an animal did this, it might show some level of self-awareness.
Robots That Learn: CORA
One of his tortoise robots was modified and given the name CORA. Walter added simple "learning" circuits to its "brain." This allowed CORA to learn simple behaviors, much like Ivan Pavlov's famous dogs. For example, it could learn that a whistle meant food.
Later versions of these "tortoise" robots were shown to the public at the Festival of Britain in 1951.
Walter believed in using purely analogue electronics to copy brain processes. This was different from other scientists like Alan Turing who focused on digital computers. Walter's work inspired many future robot builders. Today, you can see modern versions of his "turtles" in BEAM robotics.
In 2000, one of his original tortoise robots was put on display at the Science Museum in London. Another original tortoise is kept at the Smithsonian Institution in the USA.
His Family and Collaborations
William Grey Walter had two sons, Nicolas and Jeremy, from his first marriage. Later, he married Vivian Dovey, a radiographer. They had one son, Timothy.
Vivian Dovey was a very important partner in Walter's work. She helped him a lot with his research, even though sometimes her contributions were not fully recognized.
Images for kids
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William Grey Walter and Vivian Dovey around 1943.
