Apr 26, 2016 06:53 AM EDT By Mariel Hemingway, UniversityHerald Reporter

Drones are usually manned through a handhelf controller, but thanks to new technology, these devices can now be flown through a mind-controlled interface headset. The University of Florida held a mind-controlled drone competition where players use their brain power to race their drones first to the finish line.

The competition that was held last weekend involved 16 competitors where they raced their mind

-controlled drones through a 10-yard dash. It was done inside an indoor basketball court in University of Florida. The mind-controlled drone competition was sponsiered by Intel Corp. Organizers. According to Daily Sabah, the sponsor wants to turn it into an inter-collegiate competition where college and universities will compete for the first prize.

PhD student Chris Crawford said that using the drones to stimulate public interest is important. When mind-controlled drones are popularized, more and more uses for it will be discovered which will lead to its advancement in any kind of field possible.

Mind-controlled drones take flight by using an electroencephalogram (EEG) where it measures the the user's brainwaves. According to the outlet, the brain signals are translated by a special code that commands the drones to fly.

The advent of thought-controlled drones started several years ago. The technology first broke out in the news when scientists were first able to fly the drones using brainwaves. One noted project was Portugal's Brainflight project where they demonstrated mind-controlled drones, Gizmag reports.

The Brainflight project also used an EEG headset or cap and funded and backed by four organizations including Tekever, Eagle Science, Tekever and Technische Universität München. Their long-term aim was to develop mind-control technology to be applicable to larger aircrafts without needing a crew. It is also aimed at people with disabilities to be able to interact with objects or do tasks with just their brainwaves, China Topix shares.

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