what are all the future applications of brain gate technology

future scope of brain gate chip


Neurons are cells that use a language of electrical impulses to communicate messages from the brain to the rest of the body. At the core of the BrainGate Company’s technology is the ability to sense, transmit, analyze, and apply the language of neurons.

Our System offers a structured approach which applies the language of neurons in both short- and long-term settings. The platform technology is based on the results of many years of research and development at premier academic institutions such as Brown University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia, Emory University, and the University of Utah.

The goals of the BrainGate company are to create a path to a better way of life for severely motor-impaired individuals. Through years of advanced research, the BrainGate Company is at the initial stages of enabling impaired people with the ability to communicate, interact, and function through thought.

The Company’s mission is to improve the quality of life for all disabled humans. Core technology and intellectual property from our company is currently the subject of a pilot clinical trial being conducted under an Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) from the FDA. Our technology is being developed to help restore functionality for a limited, immobile group of severely motor-impaired individuals. It is expected that people using technology from the BrainGate Company will employ a personal computer as the gateway to a range of self-directed activities. These activities may extend beyond typical computer functions (e.g., communication) to include the control of objects in the environment such as a telephone, a television, lights, and even a wheelchair.

At the heart of our technology is the ability to sense, transmit, analyze, and apply the language of neurons. The BrainGate Neural Interface consists of a sensor that is implanted on the motor cortex of the brain and a device that analyzes brain signals. The underlying principle behind BrainGate™ is that with intact brain functionality, brain signals are generated even though they are not sent to the arms, hands, and legs. The signals then can be interpreted and translated into cursor movements, offering the user an alternate "BrainGate Pathway™" to control a computer with thought, just as individuals who have the ability to move their hands use a mouse.

There is research underway at the BrainGate™ Company to potentially provide limb movement to people with severe motor disabilities. The goal of this development program would be to allow these individuals to one day use their own arms and hands again. Limb movement developments are currently at the research stage and are not available for use with the any existing BrainGate™ technology or intellectual property. In addition, products are being consideredto allow for robotic control, such as a thought-controlled wheelchair. In the future, our BrainGate™ technology could be used by individuals whose injuries are less severe. Next generation products may be able to provide an individual with the ability to control devices that allow breathing, bladder, and bowel movements.

Computer and human interface will probably be one of the most important areas of development in next few decades. While we work to master our technology to make computers work for us more efficiently, and double processing power every 18month, little we have seen to improve our direct interaction with computers.

What we seen is form factor changes (tablet/smart phone), introduction to motion sensing input (Kinect), use of GPS, accelerometer, google goggle, google glass, etc. In my opinion, we probably took a step back by heavily depending upon touch keyboards moving away from using 10 fingers (QWERTY keyboard) to 2 fingers. Fashion statements have become one of the key driving factors in the market. Most of our attempts to make handwriting recognition popular were never successful.

Our ability to instruct computers directly from our brain will probably be one of the great leap forward. We have the technology in hand. Project BrainGate is one of them.

BrainGate is a brain implant system, currently under development and in clinical trials, designed to help those who have lost control of their limbs, or other bodily functions, such as patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or spinal cord injury. The sensor, which is implanted into the brain, monitors brain activity in the patient and converts the intention of the user into computer commands.

Though aimed to help with disability, focusing on people who lost control of their limbs, at times we feel disable in the same way working on a flat surface in a 2D screen with a keyboard and a mouse.

There is no reason we why cannot use technology like BrainGate to replace our input devices and probably the outputs as well in the future. We will have more control, always work in 3D. An additional dimension is also not impossible.

Presently technology like Kinect is already well capable of gesture recognition. Wearable computer is just a few steps away. Projects like google glass promises the computers to recognize our surroundings.

I can almost visualize myself using a wearable computer and operating it without having to have any external input interface and getting into much richer information, communication and processing world. An Integrated computing and communications environment where we are not expected to put on a wired gloves or a bulky glass maybe just a headband and a computer with power source.