Brain Implant Breakthrough for ALS Patients and Cybernetics

Imagine being at home, and clicking on your screen, with your mind? No kidding, this has been developed and tested on an ALS patient in the Netherlands.

What's the big deal? Hasn't there already been brain-computer interface technology? Yes. But it involves a lot of devices and connection so overall it's a large setup. Engineers need to daily recalibrate the devices, so its too complex for usual home use.

This new technology is much more convenient.

Previously, Hanneke De Brujine, a 58 year old woman, was using eye-tracking technology. She could not longer breathe requiring a respirator. Her eye movement could be lost as well. With the new technology, she won't need her eyes at all.

Selection of words on a screen, clicking with a mouse, can be controlled with the brain through thoughts. Electrodes are placed on the brain directly under the skull. Brain activity is recorded and sent through a wire to a device implanted in the chest area that then sends a wireless signal to a computer.

De Brujine had electrodes placed on the area of the brain for right-hand movement. After being trained t use it, she could play games, like pong and wack-a-mole. Six months of training has resulted in 95% accuracy. Things progress, but it takes time. Writing one word can take a few minutes on the computer. Initially it took 50 seconds to pick a letter that she can now do in 20 seconds.

Getting there took time, with 28 weeks of testing and refinement. It took several months to "weed" out and refine the algorithms to properly pick up what she wanted to do, and not register unintended brain clicks.

A drawback of the size and simplicity of the device, is that it limits the range of functionality and the amount of information that use.

Nick Ramsey at the Brain Center Rudolf Magnus of the UMC Utrecht, Netherlands, has learned from De Brujine and is working on making the tablet software smaller for the next volunteer to receive the technology, allowing them to learn to use the device more quickly. Better auto-complete software will help complete words as well. They are also working on other interfacing int he home, like turning a TV on or off, an oven, or other electrical devices.

Another researcher working with Ramsey's team in the Netherlands, Vikash Gilja, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California San Diego, has his own developments to aid in brain-computer interfacing. Instead of requiring to place the electrodes directly on the brain, new implants will have 100 electrodes fitting within 4 square millimeters, but will penetrates 1mm into the brain tissue instead of just sitting on top of it.

That's great for people to get a better quality of life when they have lost it physically. But let's face it, this is going to be wanted by regular people to for interfacing with computers on a daily basis. I'm sure the technology will get better too and less invasive. Not many people would opt for brain surgery to get to connect their thoughts to their brain... or would they? LOL.

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[Images 1, 2, 3, 4]

[References: 1, 2, 3]

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@krnel
2016-11-23, 7:01pm