Brain-computer interfaces are also called brain-machine interfaces. BCIs collect and interpret brain signals, and then transmit them to a connected machine that outputs commands associated with the brain signals received. One direction involves a BCI sending brain activity to a computer, and the computer translating brain activity into motor commands. Communication can also happen in the other direction — where the computer sends information directly to the brain of the BCI user.
Our brains are filled with cells called neurons. Every time we think, move, feel or remember something, our neurons are at work. That work is carried out by biochemical and electric signals.
Scientists can detect those signals and interpret what they mean by using electroencephalography EEG technology. EEG can read signals from the human brain and send them to amplifiers.
The amplified signals are then interpreted by a BCI computer program, which uses the signals to control a device. A BCI can also be called a brain-machine interface, a neural-control interface, a mind-machine interface or a direct neural interface. A BCI allows for direct communication between the brain and an external device, often to control its activity. BCIs read signals from the brain and use machine learning algorithms to translate the signals into an external action. EEG-based BCI are characterized by the technique of using non-invasive EEG electrodes to measure brain activity and translate the recorded brain signals into commands.
BCI technologies then relay these signals to machine learning algorithms. The machine learning algorithms have been trained to pick up on EEG brain activity associated with certain emotions, actions and expressions.
When the algorithms identify matching EEG brain activity, the BCI can transmit external commands to control a device such as a computer cursor, robotic arm or wheelchair. The devices have been programmed to interpret and carry out these commands, whether controlling a physical object or a digital interface.
BCI research also called brain-machine interface research represents a rapidly growing field. Academic researchers have studied whether BCI users can directly interact with computer software through brain activity alone. One study tested a BCI system on its ability to detect and classify brain activity with its paired mental actions. Results found the system could perform all mental actions successfully and improved with additional training data. Players wearing a sensor-equipped VR headset simply need to focus their thoughts on an object to manipulate it: there's no hand controller at all.
At the more light-hearted end of the scale, EmojiMe has built a pair of brainwave-reading headphones that display the wearer's emotional state in the form of animated emojis.
It was originally invented as a joke, its creators say. And there are plenty of other mind-controlled devices in the pipeline. The driving force behind research has come from the world of medicine, where great strides are being made in the use of BCIs. Implanting sensors on the surface of the brain gives them far greater sensitivity. If all this sounds awfully like magic, here's how these devices work.
BCIs measure brain activity through an electroencephalogram EEG that's almost as sophisticated as those used in hospitals. The device picks up the tiny electrical signals produced when neurons in the brain communicate with each other. These signals include alpha, beta, delta, theta and gamma waves, as well as various types of signal triggered by visual cues. Certain patterns of activity can be associated with particular thoughts, allowing the system to make predictions about the user's wishes.
In the case of the Nissan brain-to-vehicle system, for example, this means monitoring the signals associated with what's known as motion-related preparatory brain activity. This data is then correlated with information gathered by the vehicle itself.
For this reason, assures Mr Maxfield, there's no chance of causing an accident by simply thinking about steering or braking. Neurable, developer of the world's first mind-controlled arcade game, claims that its system is the fastest non-invasive BCI and the most accurate at determining what the user wants to do, due to its machine learning system. This interprets a set of brainwave patterns, known as event-related potentials ERPs , to establish when a game player wants to act. The company has put its system to use in Awakening, a VR game developed in partnership with eStudiofuture.
The game, a little like the Netflix series Stranger Things, involves children with telekinetic powers who escape by manipulating objects and battling enemies with thought alone. Neurable has released a kit allowing games developers to use its technology, and says it expects brain sensors eventually to become a standard feature of VR headsets. We placed Links bilaterally: one in the left motor cortex which controls movements of the right side of the body and another in the right motor cortex which controls the left side of the body.
In an accompanying blog post, Neuralink says it's building on decades of research that developed systems connecting "a few hundred electrodes" that needed a physical connector through the skin, compared to its N1 Link with 1, electrodes.
According to Neuralink, "Our mission is to build a safe and effective clinical BMI system that is wireless and fully implantable that users can operate by themselves and take anywhere they go; to scale up the number of electrodes for better robustness and higher information throughput; and to automate the implant surgery to make it as rapid and safe as possible.
Musk, as usual, went a bit further in his tweets , saying the "First Neuralink product will enable someone with paralysis to use a smartphone with their mind faster than someone using thumbs Sign up. Neuralink's brain-computer interface demo shows a monkey playing Pong Without a joystick.
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