A Brain-Computer Interface That Works Wirelessly

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Researchers at Brown University and Blackrock Microsystems, a Utah company, have commercialized a wireless device that can transmit radio thought commands to help those who are paralyzed control their electronic devices. The product is attached to the user's skull and collects these commands from a brain implant. These commands are truly brain signals which are "collected through a cable screwed into a port onto [the user's] skull, then fed along wires to a bulky rack of signal processors." It is a system that does away with a lot of the wiring of other brain data-processing machinery by compacting that technology into a device the size of an automobile gas cap, complete with a processor, circuits and radio. It it attached to the skull and hooked to electrodes inside the brain.

While it is certainly not ready for in-home use, the product is scheduled to go under FDA testing soon enough to seek clearance. If all goes well, beta testing on volunteers could commence as soon as this year. Around half a dozen paralyzed people are currently partaking in an older but similar trial known as BrainGate, and results are proving to be positive, so this technology does have a viable future. What determines is fate will be its accessibility - can all these remote-controlling with the brain work on a commercial level, one that does away with complicated headgear and excess wiring? Furthermore, can this wiring be done under the skin? That's the most dangerous yet crucial part to this project's future.