A wireless transmitter could give paralyzed people a practical way to control TVs, computers, or wheelchairs with their thoughts. After more than a decade of engineering work, researchers at Brown University and a Utah company, Blackrock Microsystems, have commercialized a wireless device that can be attached to a person’s skull and transmit via radio thought commands collected from a brain implant. (Technology Review)
Could we one day hook up our brains to the internet? Rose Eveleth investigates a claim for the first online message sent between two minds. (BBC)
Ever since musician Eduardo Miranda met a patient with locked-in syndrome eleven years ago, he has been on a mission to create a way for the paralyzed to make music. His latest invention is the brain computer music interface (BCMI), which allows people to create music using just their eyes. (CNN)
By enabling users to communicate and control devices with their thoughts, brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) hold almost a scary amount of potential. While they have achieved feats such as directing the flight of a quadcopter and helping victims of paralysis to communicate, sufferers of brainstem stroke with locked-in syndrome have so far been beyond reach. But now, a researcher at East Tennessee State University has demonstrated BCIs may in fact give brainstem stroke patients a voice again, with very specific brainwaves serving as a typing finger for a virtual keyboard . (Gizmag)
In 2012, University of Pittsburgh researchers released a video of Jan Scheuermann feeding herself a bite of chocolate. This, of course, wouldn’t be noteworthy but for one thing: Scheuermann is paralyzed from the neck down . She fed herself that chocolate using a brain implant and thought-controlled robotic arm. (SingularityHUB)
