Matrix Realized
From: Science News - 01/29/2005 - Vol. 167, No. 5, P. 72
By: Christen Brownlee

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) could give disabled people more independence
and better quality of life, if the technology is perfected. BCIs developed
over the past 30 years either direct electrical impulses into the brain or
tap the brain's electrical output: Cochlear implants are an example of the
former, while the latter category encompasses "neural prostheses." Such
prostheses are difficult to develop, given the smallness and precision of
their electrodes as well as problems in decoding the neural impulses they
pick up. Electrodes have shrunk to the point that they can be implanted
within the brain to record signals from individual neurons, and California
Institute of Technology neuroscientist Richard Andersen has spent the last
six years recording the brain activity of primates with such technology. The
next step is to develop computer software that can translate those impulses
into machine movements, and breakthroughs in this area include experiments at
Duke University and the University of Pittsburgh in which monkeys direct
mechanical arms by thought. BCIs have also been tested with human subjects:
Cyberkinetics' BrainGate system, for instance, enabled a quadriplegic to open
email, switch TV channels, control a robotic arm, and activate and deactivate
lights. However, Andersen notes that electrode implantation is not an exact
science - incorrect positioning, scarring, and natural movement around the
brain can interfere with a BCI's function. John Donoghue at Cyberkinetics
says the ultimate challenge for BCIs is overcoming people's fear of invasive
surgery, while some researchers expect future BCIs to be noninvasive devices
that pick up neural signals outside the skull's surface. 

View the entire article at:
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20050129/bob8.asp

Links:
Richard Andersen - Neural Prosthetics
http://vis.caltech.edu/neural_prosthetics/index.html
Articles: http://vis.caltech.edu/press.html
Cognitive Control Signals for Neural Prosthetics
http://www.usc.edu/dept/nbio/ngp/events/Provost_Symposium/2003/andersen.shtml

Cyberkinetics Initiates Pilot Study of BrainGate Neural Interface System  
http://www.roboticstrends.com/displayarticle380.html

Brain chip offers hope for paralyzed
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/10/20/explorers.braingate/

Cyberkinetics
http://www.cyberkineticsinc.com/