All posts tagged: brain-computer interfaces

This Beanie Is Designed to Read Your Thoughts

This Beanie Is Designed to Read Your Thoughts

Published by skeptic

Speech-to-text capability is now baked into all modern computers. But what if you didn’t have to dictate to your computer? What if you could type just by thinking? Silicon Valley startup Sabi is emerging from stealth with that goal. The company is developing a brain wearable that decodes a person’s internal speech into words on a computer screen. CEO Rahul Chhabra says its first product, a brain-reading beanie, will be available by the end of the year. The company is also designing a baseball cap version. The technology is known as a brain-computer interface, or BCI, a device that provides a direct communication pathway between the brain and an external device. While many companies such as Elon Musk’s Neuralink are developing surgically implanted BCIs for people with severe motor disabilities, Sabi’s device could allow anyone to become a cyborg. It’s not exactly Musk’s vision of the future, which involves implanted brain chips to allow humans to merge with AI. But venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, who was an early investor in OpenAI, says a noninvasive, wearable …

A New Implant Aims to Rewire Stroke Patients’ Brains

A New Implant Aims to Rewire Stroke Patients’ Brains

Published by skeptic

Stroke is one of the leading causes of long-term disability, with roughly two-thirds of survivors experiencing significant impairments in their hands and arms. While some people eventually regain that function, many live with persistent paralysis or weakness. Epia Neuro, a newly launched startup out of San Francisco, wants to help more stroke patients regain hand function with a brain implant and motorized glove. It’s among a growing number of companies developing brain-computer interfaces, devices that read neural signals from the brain and translate them into specific actions. The space has seen a huge influx of investment in recent years, with Elon Musk’s Neuralink raising $500 million last year and Sam Altman’s Merge Labs emerging from stealth in January with $252 million in funding. Neuralink and others are building devices that give people with severe motor disabilities the ability to control a computer or speak with a digital voice. Epia’s technology aims to help people move their own hands again. “These patients have very weak grip. It’s a very common problem,” says Michel Maharbiz, Epia’s CEO …

Meet the Man Making Music With His Brain Implant

Meet the Man Making Music With His Brain Implant

Published by skeptic

Galen Buckwalter didn’t hesitate to get a craniotomy in 2024 as part of a brain implant study at Caltech. The 69-year-old research psychologist wanted to contribute to cutting-edge science that could help other people with paralysis. Buckwalter has been a quadriplegic since a diving accident at age 16 left him paralyzed from the chest down. The six chips in his brain, made by Blackrock Neurotech, read activity from his neurons and decode movement intention. They enable him to operate a computer with his thoughts, feel sensation in his fingers that he had lost, and, more recently, make music with his mind. Known as a brain-computer interface, or BCI, the technology is being developed by Paradromics, Synchron, Elon Musk’s Neuralink, and others to restore communication and movement in people with severe motor disabilities. But Buckwalter’s experience shows that the technology can be used in ways that are not purely functional—for instance, as an outlet for creative expression. Other BCI recipients are using their implants to make digital art with their thoughts. A 2023 gallery exhibit at …

China Approves the First Brain Chips for Sale—and Has a Plan to Dominate the Industry

China Approves the First Brain Chips for Sale—and Has a Plan to Dominate the Industry

Published by skeptic

China has made history by becoming the first nation to approve a commercially available brain chip to treat a disability. NEO, the implant developed by Neuracle Medical Technology, translates the thoughts of a person with paralysis into movements of an assistive robotic hand. After 18 months of testing that proved its safety, China’s National Medical Products Administration authorized the implant for people aged 19 to 60 with paralysis caused by neck or spinal cord injuries that prevent them from moving their limbs. According to Nature, the implant embedded in the skull is about the size of a coin. Eight electrodes protrude from the chip and are placed on the brain, in the area that processes body movement. When the user imagines moving their hand, the chip sends a signal to a computer, which then translates it into actions performed by a prosthesis. In practice, Neo allows thought to activate a mechanical glove capable of performing basic tasks: picking up objects, manipulating utensils, or moving hygiene items. Sources consulted by the magazine indicate that 32 people …

What It’s Like to Have a Brain Implant for 5 Years

What It’s Like to Have a Brain Implant for 5 Years

Published by skeptic

Initially, Gorham used his brain-computer interface for single clicks, Oxley says. Then he moved on to multi-clicks and eventually sliding control, which is akin to turning up a volume knob. Now he can move a computer cursor, an example of 2D control—horizontal and vertical movements within a two-dimensional plane. Over the years, Gorham has gotten to try out different devices using his implant. Zafar Faraz, a field clinical engineer for Synchron, says Gorham directly contributed to the development of Switch Control, a new accessibility feature Apple announced last year that allows brain-computer interface users the ability to control iPhones, iPads, and the Vision Pro with their thoughts. In a video demonstration shown at an Nvidia conference last year in San Jose, California, Gorham demonstrates using his implant to play music from a smart speaker, turn on a fan, adjust his lights, activate an automatic pet feeder, and run a robotic vacuum in his home in Melbourne, Australia. “Rodney has been pushing the boundaries of what is possible,” Faraz says. As a field clinical engineer, Faraz …

This Chinese Startup Wants to Build a New Brain-Computer Interface—No Implant Required

This Chinese Startup Wants to Build a New Brain-Computer Interface—No Implant Required

Published by skeptic

China’s brain-computer interface industry is growing fast, and the newest company to emerge from the country is aiming to access the brain without the use of invasive implants. Gestala, newly founded in Chengdu with offices in Shanghai and Hong Kong, plans to use ultrasound technology to stimulate—and eventually read from—the brain, according to CEO and cofounder Phoenix Peng. It’s the second company to launch in recent weeks with the aim of tapping into the brain with ultrasound. Earlier this month, OpenAI announced a major investment in brain-computer interface startup Merge Labs, cofounded by its CEO, Sam Altman, along with other tech executives and members of Forest Neurotech, a California-based nonprofit research organization. Best known as a type of medical test, ultrasound uses high-frequency sound waves to create images of internal organs and to visualize blood flow. One of the most common uses of ultrasound is to monitor the development of a fetus during pregnancy. But researchers have also been interested in ultrasound’s potential to treat diseases, not just diagnose them. Depending on the intensity of …

OpenAI Invests in Sam Altman’s New Brain Tech Startup Merge Labs

OpenAI Invests in Sam Altman’s New Brain Tech Startup Merge Labs

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On Thursday, OpenAI announced its investment in neurotech startup Merge Labs, cofounded by its CEO, billionaire Sam Altman. OpenAI will collaborate with the new venture to develop technology to link people’s brains to computers. Merge Labs has raised $252 million in funding from OpenAI, private investment firm Bain Capital, video game developer Gabe Newell, and others to use ultrasound to read and modulate the brain. Merge joins a growing number of companies, including Elon Musk’s Neuralink, that are developing brain-computer interface technology. Its name comes from the Silicon Valley concept of “the merge,” the hypothetical point at which humans and machine intelligence combine to form a hybrid consciousness, which Altman has written about. Altman previously invested in Musk’s Neuralink, which has raised $1.3 billion so far. In contrast to Neuralink, Merge says it will not implant its technology in the brain. “We’re developing entirely new technologies that connect with neurons using molecules instead of electrodes, transmit and receive information using deep-reaching modalities like ultrasound, and avoid implants into brain tissue,” the company says on its …