A
lot of sci-fi ideas seem to have their roots
in the ’70s. We don’t know whether it’s
the availability of mind-bending drugs at
the time, or the free love, or the fashions,
but something seems to have sparked off
a load of ideas that still seem modern today.One of those ideas is the brain/computer interface (BCI),
which you kind of expect Elon Musk to talk about in the same
way he might discuss hollowing out a volcano, but sit up and
take notice when Valve starts talking about it too. Research
into them began in the ’70s, and earlier this year the UK
Government received a report into them from the
Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, in which it
was stated that entertainment companies are developing
non-invasive BCIs “to play computer games”. This no doubt
made a few honourable members wonder what a ‘computer
game’ was, but the next sentence is even better: these
products are currently being offered to consumers.
Non-invasive BCIs, which use sensors worn on the skull,
are a world away from the invasive type Musk is implanting in
the skulls of pigs, which he describes as “kind of like a Fitbit in
your skull with tiny wires”. We’re not sure we’d want that, but
for anyone who’s suffered a disconnection between their brain
and the rest of their body, perhaps as a result of an accident,
an implant may be able to reconnect the nerve signals.Take the case of two subjects in a recent DARPA-
supported clinical trial carried out by the University of
Melbourne, Australia. Both suffer from upper-limb paralysis
thanks to ALS, also known as motor neurone disease, they
were fitted with tiny wires that picked up electrical signals
from the nervous system, and passed the results to a
computer. This was able to distinguish between the different
types of signals received when the subjects thought about
different things, and these were mapped to various computer
commands, including moving the mouse on an unmodified
Windows 10 PC. By adding an eye-tracker, they were able to
send messages, order online shopping, and use internet
banking. They were then allowed to take the interfaces home,
and achieved click-selection accuracy rates of over 92
percent. Sadly, there was no mention of whether they used
this new ability to play StarCraft II.
The surgery required for the interfaces is described as
‘minimally invasive’ by the study’s authors, but still means
wires in your brain – specifically the superior sagittal sinus
adjacent to the primary motor cortex – inserted through veins
using a tiny expandable tube called a stent. This is probably
what Musk’s pig has gone through too – although the South
African-born billionaire suffered a blow in September when a
survey suggested 90 percent of people wouldn’t use one, with
32 percent worried it could be used for spying. The survey,
carried out by OnBuy.com, was hardly scientifically rigorous,In 2019, a man
called Thibault
was able to walk
in a mind-
controlled
exoskeleton after
being paralysed
in an accident.
The tech, from
French firm
Clinatec and
Grenoble Alpes
Hospital, took a
few months to
master using a
videogame-like
training system.
Brainwave
recording
devices were
implanted at the
sides of his head,
reading the
motor cortex of
Thibault’s brain.Cyborg
MIND READING
Brain-computer interfaces could revolutionise the way we live
Clinatec’s
exoskeleton,
which allowed the
patient Thibault to
walk again.Image credit: Clinatec
TECH
REPORT