What is brain-computer interfaces | Mind-reading computers : Everything you need to
know about brain-computer interfaces and the future of mind-reading computers.
What is brain-computer interfaces
Everything sounds a
bit like science fiction. Brain-computer interfaces are not really something
that people are using now, right? In fact, people are using BCI today, around
them. In its simplest form, a brain-computer interface can be used as a neuro prosthesis,
that is, a piece of hardware that can replace or augment nerves that do not
work properly. The most commonly used neuro prostheses are cochlear implants,
which help people with damaged auditory nerves to listen. Neuro prostheses to
help replace damaged optic nerve function are less common, but several
companies are developing them, and we are likely to see widespread absorption
of such devices in the coming years.
Why are brain-computer interfaces described as mental reading technology?
That is where
this technology is directed. There are systems, currently in the pilot phase,
that can translate brain activity (electrical impulses) into signals that the
software can understand. That means you can measure your brain activity; Mind
reading in real life. Or you can use your brain activity to control a remote
device.
When we think,
thoughts are transmitted inside our brain and down in our body as a series of
electrical impulses. The uptake of such signals is nothing new: doctors already
monitor electrical activity in the brain using EEG (electroencephalography) and
in the muscles using EMG (electromyography) as a way to detect nerve problems.
In medicine, EEG and EMG are used to find diseases and other nervous problems
when looking for too much, too little or unexpected electrical activity in a
patient's nerves.
Now, however,
researchers and companies are analyzing whether those electrical impulses could
be decoded to give an idea of a person's thoughts.
Can BCIs read minds?
Could you say what I am thinking now? Currently, no. BCIs cannot read their
thoughts accurately enough to know what their thoughts are at any given time.
Currently, it is more about collecting emotional states or what movements you
intend to make. A BCI could recover when someone is thinking 'yes' or 'no', but
detecting more specific thoughts, such as knowing that you feel like a cheese
sandwich at this time or that your boss has really been bothering you, is
beyond the reach of Most brains. Computer interfaces.
Well, give me an
example of how BCIs are used. Much interest in BCIs comes from medicine. BCIs
could offer a way for people with nerve damage to recover lost function. For
example, in some spinal injuries, the electrical connection between the brain
and limb muscles has been broken, which means that people cannot move their
arms or legs. BCIs could help in such injuries by passing electrical signals to
the muscles, preventing broken connection and allowing people to move again, or
helping patients use their thoughts to control robotics or prostheses that
could make movements to they.
They could also help
people with conditions such as the enclosure syndrome, who cannot speak or move
but have no cognitive problems, to make their wishes and needs known.
What about the military and the BCI?
Like many new technologies, BCIs have attracted the
interest of the military, and the US military emerging technology agency DARPA
is investing tens of millions of dollars in the development of a brain-computer
interface for soldiers to use.
In more general terms,
it is easy to see the appeal of BCIs to the military: soldiers in the field
could patch the equipment at headquarters to obtain additional intelligence,
for example, and communicate with each other without making noise. Similarly,
there are darker uses that the army could also put BCI, such as interrogation
and espionage.
What about Facebook and BCI?
Facebook has been defending the use of BCI and recently bought a BCI
company, CTRL-labs, for an amount of $ 1 billion. Facebook is looking at BCI
from two different perspectives. He is working with researchers to translate
thoughts into speech, and his acquisition of CTRL-labs could help interpret
what movements someone wants to do only with his brain signals. The common
thread between the two is to develop the next hardware interface.
Facebook is already
preparing to change the way we interact with our devices. In the same way that
we have moved from the keyboard to the mouse to the touch screen and more
recently to the voice as a way to control the technology that surrounds us,
Facebook bets that the next great interface will be our thinking. Instead of
writing your next status update, you might think about it; Instead of touching
a screen to switch between windows, you can simply move your hands in the air.
I'm not sure I want to
put a chip in my brain just to write a status update. It may not be necessary:
not all BCI systems require a direct interface to read their brain activity.
There are currently
two approaches to BCI: invasive and non-invasive. Invasive systems have
hardware that is in contact with the brain; Non-invasive systems usually pick
up brain signals from the scalp, using sensors used in the head.
The two approaches
have their own different benefits and disadvantages. With invasive BCI systems,
because electrode assemblies are touching the brain, they can gather much more
precise and fine-grained signals. However, as you can imagine, they involve
brain surgery and the brain is not always very happy to have electrode
junctions attached; The brain reacts with a process called glial healing, which
in turn can make it difficult for the whole to pick up signals. Due to the risks
involved, invasive systems are generally reserved for medical applications.
However, non-invasive
systems are more consumer friendly, since surgery is not required; such systems
record the electrical impulses that come from the skin, either through caps
equipped with sensors that are worn on the head or similar hardware used on the
wrist as wristbands. It is likely to be the direct (or head) nature of the
hardware that slows adoption: early users may be happy to wear large, obvious
caps, but most consumers will not be interested in wearing a studded hat.
electrodes that reads your brain waves.
However, there are
efforts to build less intrusive non-invasive systems: DARPA, for example, is
funding non-surgical BCI research and one day the necessary hardware could be
small enough to be inhaled or injected.
Why are BCIs becoming
something now? Researchers have been interested in the potential of BCIs for
decades, but technology has advanced at a much faster rate than many predicted,
thanks in large part to better artificial intelligence and machine learning
software. As these systems have become more sophisticated, they have been able
to better interpret the signals that come from the brain, separate the signals
from the noise and correlate the electrical impulses of the brain with real
thoughts.
Should I worry if
people read my thoughts without my permission? What about mind control? On a
practical level, most BCIs are only unidirectional, that is, they can read
thoughts, but they cannot put any idea in the minds of users. That said,
experimental work is already being done on how people can communicate through
BCI: a recent project from the University of Washington allowed three people to
collaborate on a game similar to Tetris using BCI.
The
pace of technology development is what it is, bidirectional interfaces will be
more common in a short time. Especially if Elon Musk's BCI suit, Neuralink, has
something to do with it.
What
is neuralink? Elon Musk aroused interest in BCI when he launched Neuralink. As
expected of anything directed by Musk, there is a level of ambition and secrecy
while making your eyes water. The company's website and the Twitter feed
revealed very little about what he was planning, although Musk occasionally
shared clues, suggesting that he was working on brain implants in the form of
"neural lace," an electrode mesh that would settle on the surface of
the brain . The first serious information about Neuralink technology came with
a presentation earlier this year, showing a new matrix that can be implanted in
the cerebral cortex by surgical robots.
SEE:
Elon Musk's Neuralink uses small 'brain threads' to try to read your mind
Like many BCIs, Neuralink
was initially framed as a way to help people with neurological disorders, but
Musk is looking further, claiming that Neuralink could be used to allow humans
a direct interface with artificial intelligence, so that humans Do not look
overcome. by AI. It may be that the only way to prevent machines from
overtaking us is to join them: if we can't beat them, Musk thinks, we may have
to join them.Share this
