A team of scientists managed to make paralyzed people operate a tablet by implanting a brain-computer interface in their brains.
Last year, a study from the scientific effort called BrainGate reported that a Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) allowed a paralyzed person to type up to eight words per minute, just by thinking. Now, according to new results from a BrainGate2 clinical trial, the same BCI was used to help three participants operating a tablet computer.
All three participants suffer loss movements in their hands because amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also referred to as Lou Gehrig disease) or spinal cord injury. The brain implant and a series of microelectrodes were placed in all of them as part of his clinical trial. BrainGate2. In this particular study, the decoded neural signalfrom the implant were routed through a protocol, providing a virtual mouse. This “mouse” was paired with a Google Nexus 9 tablet via Bluetooth.
Each participant was asked to test seven common applications on the tablet: e-mail, chat, web browser, video sharing, streaming music, weather program and news aggregator. The researchers also asked users if they wanted any additional apps, then added the keyboard app, Amazon shopping, and a numbermachine. Participants reached up to 22 clicks per minute and typed up to 30 characters per minute, in email and text programs.
In addition, all three participants really enjoy using the tablet.
