A Brain-Computer Interface That Works Wirelessly
From: MIT Technology Review - 01/14/2015
By: Antonio Regalado

A wireless transmitter could give paralyzed people a practical way to control
TVs, computers, or wheelchairs with their thoughts.

A few paralyzed patients could soon be using a wireless brain-computer
interface able to stream their thought commands as quickly as a home Internet
connection.

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. Blackrock says it will seek
clearance for the system from the US Food and Drug Administration, so that
the mental remote control can be tested in volunteers, possibly as soon as
this year.

The new interface does away with much of that wiring by processing brain data
inside a device about the size of an automobile gas cap. It is attached to
the skull and wired to electrodes inside the brain. Inside the device is a
processor to amplify the faint electrical spikes emitted by neurons, circuits
to digitize the information, and a radio to beam it a distance of a few
meters to a receiver. There, the information is available as a control
signal; say to move a cursor across a computer screen.

The device transmits data out of the brain at rate of 48 megabits per second,
about as fast as a residential Internet connection, says Nurmikko. It uses
about 30 milliwatts of power — a fraction of what a smartphone uses — and is
powered by a battery.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/534206/a-brain-computer-interface-that-works-wirelessly/

Links:
Implanting Hope
http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/403761/implanting-hope/

The Thought Experiment
http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/528141/the-thought-experiment/

Paralysed woman moves robot with her mind - by Nature Video (video 4:29)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogBX18maUiM

Blackrock Microsystems
http://www.blackrockmicro.com/

Submitted by Erik Valainis