Neural Interfaces

This Positive Technology Journal article looks the XWave: a new technology that uses a single electrode placed on the wearer’s forehead to measure electroencephalography (EEG) data, and converts these analog signals into digital so they can be used to control an external device. From the article: "The XWave comes bundled with a software that includes a number of brain-training exercises. These include levitating a ball on the iDevice’s screen, changing a color based on the relaxation level of your brain and training your brain to maximize its attention span.

In the company’s own words:

This Singularity Hub article look at an EEG-controlled wheelchair developed by the EPFL’s Center for Neuroprosthetics. Here's a video about the project. From the article: "You know telekinesis, right – moving objects with your thoughts? Let’s talk techno-kinesis – moving machines with your thoughts. There’s a really great new example out of EPFL’s Center for Neuroprosthetics. Researchers have developed a wheelchair which responds to brain activity as monitored by an EEG cap. Operators can simply think of moving their hand in one of four directions (left, right, back, forward) and the wheelchair will automatically move them as commanded. Pretty cool, right?

This Positive Technology Journal article looks at the Heart Chamber Orchestra: classical musicians who use their heartbeats to control a computer composition and visualization environment. From the article: "To my best knowledge, this is the first example of "group biofeedback".

The musicians are equipped with ECG (electrocardiogram) sensors. A computer monitors and analyzes the state of these 12 hearts in real time. The acquired information is used to compose a musical score with the aid of computer software. It is a living score dependent on the state of the hearts.

Imagine your motor cortex fully activated while you have full muscle tone but both what your cortex says you are experiencing and what you are actually experiencing are not what you body is actually doing. You were trained to do this on a brain computer interface. Highly Skilled lucid dreamers in intense sessions and brain tomography on the level of seismic tomography make this all possible. Accessing the brain thru non-invasive means is vital in Berlin where Brain Computer Interfacers and the Locked-in are moving things with only their minds; however, one might say that all this research is treading water awaiting advances in Neuro-surgery. I’m pitching the thoroughly developed non-invasive technique as a necessary prelude to the invasive interface. I’m just looking for sympathetic places to post the story I’m telling in the form of a fictitious photo journal. http://deepcomputedbciashortstory.blogspot.com/

This PRWeb article takes a look at a high-tech virtual reality device that helps parkinson's patients walk safely again. From the article: "MediGait LLC combines virtual reality programming and real-time motion detection into a cell-phone sized device that helps PD patients regain their natural ability to walk normally. This device helps PD patients by jump-starting a process that induces a neuroplastic brain response. This means the patient's brain literally rewires itself using healthy circuits bypassing diseased areas sometimes in as little as two weeks.

This Behavioral and brain functions article describes a study about modulating presence and impulsive behavior by external stimulation of the brain. From the article: ""The feeling of being there" is one possible way to describe the phenomenon of feeling present in a virtual environment and to act as if this environment is real. One brain area, which is hypothesized to be critically involved in modulating this feeling (also called presence) is the dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), an area also associated with the control of impulsive behavior.

This NewScientistTech article reports Erik Ramsey who is almost totally paralysed is learning to talk again with the help of an electrode implanted in his speech-motor cortex. You may also check the video on YouTube. From the article: "Nine years ago, a brain-stem stroke left Erik Ramsey almost totally paralysed, but with his mental faculties otherwise intact. Today he is learning to talk again – although so far he can only manage basic vowel sounds.

In 2004, Ramsey had an electrode implanted in his speech-motor cortex by Philip Kennedy's team at Neural Signals, a company based in Duluth, Georgia, US, who hoped the signal from Ramsey's cortex could be used to restore his speech.

This NewScientistTech article reports a wireless antenna that channels signals along human skin, developed at Queen's University Belfast, could broadcast signals over your body to connect up medical implants or portable gadgets. From the article: "The new power-efficient approach could make more of established medical devices like pacemakers or help future implants distributed around the body work together.

Just one of the small hockey-puck-like antennas developed at Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, would be able to connect to gadgets anywhere else on the body, says William Scanlon who made the design with colleague Gareth Conway.

This NewScientistTech article reports a software developed in the US can perceive moving images in much the same way a cat's brain does. From the article: "The researchers hope the work will one day lead to implants that make it possible for people to see without an optic nerve.

Researchers at the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, San Francisco, were motivated by the fact that, until now, models of the way brains respond to visual input used simple images like dots, bars and grids. They are typically unable to cope with the complex scenes a human would usually see.

This Physorg article reports has designed a baseball cap which detects and analyzes the electroencephalogram (EEG) signals from your brain. From the article: "It looks like an ordinary baseball cap. But when you put it on, the cap detects and analyzes the electroencephalogram (EEG) signals from your brain. It can even tell you if you’re getting too sleepy when driving based on your brain wave patterns. Similar technology could also allow you to control home electronics such as TVs, computers, and air conditioners, all by just thinking about them.