Neural Interfaces

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.

This EETimes article reports scientists of the Aachen university clinic and the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits have developed a retina implant that wirelessly receives optical signals from the outside. From the article: "The development aims at a technology to restore eyesight for blind persons.

Worldwide, about 3 million persons suffer from Retina Pigmentosa, an eye disease which slowly leads to complete blindness. While retina cells die off, some nerve cells in many cases remain intact. These cells can be stimulated through technical seeing aids such as retina implants. However, power supply and signal transmission through wires incorporate significant hurdles for the patient as well as for designers.

This NewScientistTech article reports a neckband that translates thought into speech by picking up nerve signals has been used to demonstrate a "voiceless" phone call for the first time. From the article: "With careful training a person can send nerve signals to their vocal cords without making a sound. These signals are picked up by the neckband and relayed wirelessly to a computer that converts them into words spoken by a computerised voice.

This ComputerWorld Hardware article takes a look at products shown at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Most of them are devoted to new ways to input data to a PC or gaming console, including a variety of inputs via voice commands or gestures that are registered via video detection and neural interfaces. Systems like Second Life and Activeworlds were also demonstrated as systems businesses can use for training employees, holding meetings and demonstrating products to consumers.

This Emerging Technology Trends article takes a look at a new 234 pages report from the World Technology Evaluation Center about brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). From the article: "All over the world, systems that directly connect silicon circuits to brains are under development, and some are nearly ready for commercial applications, according to a new report from the World Technology Evaluation Center and announced by a news release of the University of Southern California (USC). Some of the conclusions of this report about brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are quite surprising.

This Physorg.com article reports researchers from the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (CNBC), a joint project of Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, have for the first time described a mechanism called “dynamic connectivity,” in which neuronal circuits are rewired “on the fly” allowing stimuli to be more keenly sensed. From the article: "This new, biologically inspired algorithm for analyzing the brain at work allows scientists to explain why when we notice a scent, the brain can quickly sort through input and determine exactly what that smell is.

[This Physorg.com article reports University of Leicester researchers have discovered that they can tell what a person is actually seeing from the firing of a specific type of neuron. From the article: " The original research by Dr R Quian Quiroga, of the University’s Department of Engineering, showed that one neuron fired to, for instance, Jennifer Aniston, another one to Halle Berry, another one to the Sydney Opera House, etc.

The responses were abstract. For example, the neuron firing to Halle Berry responded to several different pictures of her and even to the letters of her name, but not to other people or names.