Scientists Gingerly Tap into Brain's Power
From: USA Today - 10/11/04 - page 1B
By: Kevin Maney

Scientists are developing technologies that read brainwave signals and
translate them into actions, which could lead to neural prosthetics, among
other things. Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems' Braingate is an example
of such technology: Braingate has already been deployed in a quadriplegic,
allowing him to control a television, open email, and play the computer game
Pong using sensors implanted into his brain that feed into a computer.
Although "On Intelligence" author Jeff Hawkins praises the Braingate trials
as a solid step forward, he cautions that "Hooking your brain up to a machine
in a way that the two could communicate rapidly and accurately is still
science fiction." Braingate was inspired by research conducted at Brown
University by Cyberkinetics founder John Donoghue, who implanted sensors in
primate brains that picked up signals as the animals played a computer game
by manipulating a mouse; the sensors fed into a computer that looked for
patterns in the signals, which were then translated into mathematical models
by the research team. Once the computer was trained on these models, the
mouse was eliminated from the equation and the monkeys played the game by
thought alone. The Braingate interface consists of 100 sensors attached to a
contact lens-sized chip that is pressed into the surface of the cerebral
cortex; the device can listen to as many as 100 neurons simultaneously, and
the readings travel from the chip to a computer through wires. Meanwhile,
Duke University researchers have also implanted sensors in primate brains to
enable neural control of robotic limbs. The Defense Advanced Research Project
Agency (DARPA) is pursuing a less invasive solution by funding research into
brain machine interfaces that can read neural signals externally, for such
potential applications as thought-controlled flight systems. Practical
implementations will not become a reality until the technology is
sufficiently cheap, small, and wireless, and then ethical and societal issues
must be addressed. 

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/2004-10-10-braingate-cover_x.htm
