Brain-computer interfaces face a critical test

Technology companies are always trying to try new ways for people to interact with computers – their efforts such as Google Glass, The Apple Watch and Amazon’s Alexa. You may have used at least one.

But the most extreme option was tried by less than 100 people on the face of the earth-those who lived for several months or years with computers in the cultivated brain, or BCIS.

The cultivated bcis are electric poles in the brains of paralyzed people so that they can use imaginative movements to send orders of their neurons via a wire, or via radio, to a computer. In this way, they can control the computer index, or in a few cases, they produce speech.

Recently, this field has taken some steps towards real practical applications. There are about 25 clinical trials for BCI growing currently ongoing. And this year Massachusetts Institute Technology Review Technology Readers have chosen this computer’s computer facades as an addition to our annual list of 10 penetration techniques, published in January.

BCIS won before the landslide to become “eleventh penetration”, as we call it. It has dominated three runners: continuous glucose screens, excessive deep treatment, and satellites to detect methane.

The impression of progress comes thanks to a small group of companies that employ volunteers actively to experience BCIS in clinical trials. They are Neuralink, supported by the richest person in the world, Elon Musk; New York -based Synchron; Chinese neuroscience.

Each of them experiences facades with the ultimate goal of obtaining the first BCI cultivated in the approved field for sale.

“I call it the era of translation. “In the past two years, there has been a major private investment. This creates excitement and allows companies to accelerate.”

This is a big change, because for years BCIS was like a neuroscientist trick, generating many major headlines but little actual assistance to patients.

Patrick Kruger says that the first time it was controlled by a computer index from the brain cultivated in 1998. This was followed by slow drip studies from the tests that university researchers find one volunteer, installing a transplant, and carrying out studies for several months or years.

For 26 years, Patrick Kruger says, she was able to document a total of 71 patients who control a computer directly with their neurons.

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These studies have shown that people can use their neurons to play Pong, transfer the robot arm, and even speak via the computer. But such demonstrations do not have the help of practical people with severe paralysis enough to take advantage of a computer that is controlled by the brain, because these transplants are not widely available yet.

“There is one thing that made them work, and the other is how to actually publish it,” says Contreras-Fadel. “Also, behind any great news, there may be technical problems that must be addressed.” These include questions about the period in which the transplant will continue and the amount of control it provides to patients.

You are now trying to experience more than three companies to solve these questions and determine the basis for a real product.

One of the companies, synchron, is used, stews with electrodes that are inserted into the vein of the brain in the neck. Synchron planted “Stentrode” in 10 volunteers, six in the United States and four in Australia – the most coincidence volunteers reported by any BCI group.

Stetrode collects limited brain signals, so only users give a basic type of control/suspension, or what Synchron called “key”. This will not allow a paralyzed person using Photoshop. But it is sufficient to switch software lists or choose between pre -written messages.

Tom Oxley, CEO of Synchron, says that the Stentrode feature is “as simple as possible.” This, he believes, will make the computer interface “developable” for more people, especially since its installation does not involve brain surgery.

Synchron may be in the foreground, but it is still in an exploratory stage. A “central” study, the type used to persuade the organizers to allow sales of a specific version of the device, has not yet been scheduled. So there is no timetable for a product.

At the same time, Neuralink revealed that three volunteers have received N1, which consists of multiple soft electrocardiograms that were entered directly into the brain through a skull hole.

More poles mean that more nervous activity is captured. The first Nouralink volunteer, Noland Arbake, showed how he could direct the index around the screen in two dimensions and click, allowing him to play video games such as civilization or chess via the Internet.

Finally, Neurocle says it runs two experiences in China and one in the United States. Its implants consist of a patch of electrodes placed over the brain. In a report, the company said that the paralyzed volunteer uses the system to motivate the electrodes in his arm, causing his hand to understand.

But the details remain scattered. Only a nerve executive will say that “many people” have received its cultivation.

Since the number of the patient in Neurocle is not a year, he was not included in Trick-Krueger. In fact, there is absolutely no information in medical literature about about a quarter of the volunteers who grow the brain yet, so they calculated them using press data or by sending search teams via email.

BCI scanned other visions. According to its data, the transplants lasted for up to 15 years, and more than half of patients in the United States, and nearly 75 % of the male BCI recipient.

The data cannot answer the big question. This is whether the cultivated BCIS will advance from penetration demonstrations to intermittent products, which is the type that helps many people.

“In the five years to the next ten years, either you are translated into a product or will remain in the research,” says Patrick Kruger. “I feel very confident in the presence of outbreak.”

2025-04-01 10:00:00