BrainGate plugs brains into computers

[alexd]

Short but interesting article.

21 March 2005

FOXBOROUGH, Mass., Mar 20, 2005 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- A Foxborough, Mass., company has developed technology that plugs a human brain into a desktop computer, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems has developed BrainGate, a product aimed at enabling quadriplegics to do things like surf the Web, write e-mails, play video games and operate TV remotes and telephones just by thinking.

"We can take someone's thought and put it on a screen," said Tim Surgenor, chief executive of Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems, manufacturer of the device, which is called BrainGate Neural Interface System.

BrainGate has already been tested on one person, and the Food and Drug Administration has given Cyberkinetics permission to test the technology on four other quadriplegics.

The system requires a surgeon to drill a hole in the patient's head and implant a chip on the surface of the brain area responsible for moving arms and hands.

Source article


Alex

[beavis]

i wanted one until i saw...

The system requires a surgeon to drill a hole in the patient's head and implant a chip on the surface of the brain area responsible for moving arms and hands.

[-lines-]

At least it's a step closer to what plugin a brain into a computer in a good way.

[manuel]

I wonder if it comes in usb?

[alexd]

The thing that caught my eye is that 'thoughts can be placed on a computer'. This means that thoughts are something tangible, not just an intangible product of the psyche.

It would be interesting if an image could be visualized and outputted into PhotoShop. Or if a word document could be typed just by thinking the words you want to write.

Having someone place a chip on your brain is certainly not pleasing though.


Alex

[-lines-]

I'm very interested in it if it can be used to both induce/create visualiztions and if it could be used to record the visualizations from dreams. It sounds a long way off from that, but it is very interesting to think about. I have heard that they have been able to give blind people sight (those that have been made blind due to injury or disease) by connecting directly to the optic nerve.

[Zentiger]

Looks like future technology depicted by things like "The Matrix" and "Ghost in the Shell" are closer than I thought.  Didn't think I would see something like this in my lifetime... besides in movies and anime of course.

The thing that caught my eye is that 'thoughts can be placed on a computer'. This means that thoughts are something tangible, not just an intangible product of the psyche.

Interesting thought...

~Zentiger

[MisterJingo]

Technology which attempts to interface the brain with electronics has been in research for quite some time. I remember one article long ago detailing implanting a chip onto the vision centres of the brain, this was then hooked up to a camera mounted on the glasses of a blind person. When I last saw this area, rudimentary colour and shape had been perceived by blind people.
Regarding this, I think that they mean electronic impulses could be mapped and produce a programmed output when they say: 'put thought's onto a computer'. If you notice, the technology aimed at quadriplegics (no arm's or leg's) is actually implanted at the site responsible for hand and arm movement. So what in-fact will be happening is slight activity differences in that site of the brain, which have been mapped to corresponding arm and leg movements, will produce some form of software change i.e. if an able bodied person used this, he would need to move his arms an legs in a variety of positions to make things happen (action not 'thought' produces the effect) which is not a problem with quadriplegics.
I think we are still very far from actually interpreting thoughts from the brain (for one we don't actually know what thought's are) which can be seen in a previous research products. By mapping inputs and corresponding outputs of the hypothalamus, it would be possible to produce an artificial one. The scientists didn't know how the hypothalamus did what it did, but they could see output based on conditions and create a chip to produce the same output based on input conditions.
It's a facinating area to look into, Professor Kevin Warwick is worth reading up on for those interested.