Elon Muskbrain manufacturing company, Neuralinkannounced on Tuesday that it is starting research to test its implementation of a new task: allowing a person to control a robot arm using only their thoughts. “We are pleased to announce the approval and implementation of a new trial that can improve BCI control using an N1 implant in the research arm,” said Neuralink. post on Musk X’s social media page.
BCI, or brain-computer interfaceis a system that allows a person to directly control external devices and their brain waves. It works by reading and recording movement signals from neurons. Neuralink’s BCI involves a coin-operated device called the N1 that is implanted in the robot’s brain. The company is currently to evaluate the safety of his BCIand its ability to control the computer in people with disabilities.
Moving a computer or a prosthetic arm is nothing new for BCIs. In 2008a group led by Andrew Schwartz at the University of Pittsburgh showed that a monkey can control a robot arm to feed itself using signals from its brain. After that, the researchers moved to volunteers. In a 2012 education published in the journal Nature, two people paralyzed by stroke were able to guide a robotic arm to reach and grasp objects by simply thinking about them. One was able to make coffee for himself for the first time in 14 years. In another 2016 studya man who had a BCI began to feel working again using a robotic arm.
The BCIs used in these studies were passive implants that required running a cable from the researchers’ head to a computer that detects brain signals. In contrast, the Neuralink system is wireless.
Get started social media earlier this yearNeuralink demonstrated that its BCI can be used to control a computer pointer. In a videos on XFellow student Noland Arbaugh was shown using a Neuralink device to play chess and other computer games. Arbaugh, who became a quadriplegic after a swimming accident in 2016, he spoke to WIRED earlier this year about how the implant helps him become independent.
Arbaugh underwent brain surgery in January to receive the Neuralink implant, but a few weeks later, the device it started to fail. The implant consists of 64 thin, flexible wires that are inserted into the brain tissue. Each fiber has 16 electrodes that collect neural signals. In a blog post from May, Neuralink said a number of fibers were disconnected from Arbaugh’s brain, causing him to temporarily lose control. Neuralink was able to restore Arbaugh’s control by modifying its brain imaging algorithm to make it more complex and by changing the way it translates neural signals into motion signals.
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