- US scientists have decoded brain waves associated with handwriting.
- These signals are received by small rectangle, electrode-based brain implants
- This mind can be translated into text on a screen by a neural network
Since losing all mobility below the neck due to a spinal cord injury in 2007, a man was able to compose again – with his mind.
According to a report published Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal Nature, Stanford University researchers used artificial intelligence algorithms and a brain-computer interface to assist a man with immobilized limbs in communicating through email.
In 2017, Dr. Jaimie Henderson, a neurosurgery professor at Stanford, inserted two microchips the size of a baby aspirin and around 1 millimeter in the man’s brain. Electrodes on the chips record neurons in the motor cortex, the region of the brain that regulates hand activity.
Researchers expect that this technology will be extended to allow people who cannot speak to simulate dialogue by writing.
Although writing can reach about 20 words a minute, we also talk about 125 words a minute, which supplements handwriting, said Krishna Shenoy, professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University. This is another exciting way.
More analysis has to be performed before the results of the research can be transferred to actual applications like a tablet, a smartphone or a server.
How it works?
A new BCI will transform conceptual handwriting into real-time text on a screen, the act that allows you to imagine writing on a page.
A program was designed to decipher attempted handwriting motions from signals in the brain by US researchers.
The signs are measured by small square electrode arrays of about a baby aspirin tablet injected into the brain.
Researchers are saying that the machine will quickly type messages for persons with paralysis who don’t use their hands or their fingers.
A paralysed person used the BCI in a clinical trial to compose text on a computer screen simply by dreaming about handwriting gestures.
The man was able to copy phrases and answer questions at the same pace as anyone of his mobile age.
WHAT IS BRAINGATE?
Initially created by Brown University researchers with the biotech firm Cyberkinetics, the BrainGate is a brain implant device.
BrainGate is technology based on which neuron language can be sensed, transmitted, analyzed and applied.
It includes a camera implanted on the brain’s engine cortex, and a brain signals analysis unit.
The main theory behind BrainGate is that, while brain signals are not transmitted to arms, hands and legs, brain signals are produced with intact brain functioning.
The signals are perceived and encoded on a computer by BrainGate into cursor gestures and activity.
This lets someone manipulate a machine with thinking, much as someone who can use their hands use a mouse.
The machine is specifically intended to recover the mobility of a small number of people with serious motor impairments.
