Brain Machine Interface

THE IDEA

It all came to mind from the sci-fi movie “The Matrix”, those rebels  putting on the computer cords at the back of the neck—probably between the occipital bone at the base of the skull, and the first neck vertebra. The bioport (that’s what the technology was called in movie) was a way of giving the Matrix computers full access to the information channels of the brain. The rebels use the bioport to load new skills into their colleagues' brains—writing directly into permanent memory. Making it possible for rebels to learn things in seconds like flying a helicopter. Think if this could materialize into reality. No need to go to colleges just download the the whole semester books into your brain, you could read your favorite novels in seconds, learn “Kung-Fu”, possibilities could be endless.

FROM VIRTUOSITY TO REALITY

Moving to reality, many researches are actually going on to explore the possibility of the man and machine merger.

Scientists have already got some breakthroughs; Trials for the implanted chip technology have been very successful for monkeys, who have learned to control a computer game witt their brains.

 Scientists are finding different ways of receiving senses for people who have lost a sense, such as sight or touch, they are made wear an artificial sensor. This might be a video camera, or a touch sensitive glove. Then, electrical pulses which encode the sense are sent to a strip on their tongue, which initially feel like eating sherbet. Quickly, however, the brain learns to interpret the signals correctly - blind people can catch balls, see flickering slights and read simple letters! They no longer notice the tingling. It seems to be an automatic process, which the brain somehow “rewires” to handle the new input.

REMOTE CONTROL BrainGate technology has been designed to read brain signals associated with controlling movement, which a computer could translate into instructions for moving a computer cursor or controlling a variety of assistive devices. This has helped the people suffering from spinal cord injuries, muscular dystrophy, brain stem stroke, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig's Disease), and other motor neuron diseases.

One researcher who has been studying possible connections between silicon electronics and biological cells for over two decades and has succeeded in making a neuron transistor. A connection of neuron and transistor with possibility of sending two way signals.

On the Media and Communication front, Gamers will soon be able to interact with the virtual world using their thoughts and emotions alone.

A neuro-headset which interprets the interaction of neurons in the brain will go on sale later this year. The headset takes the signals from brain and converts them into actions in the game. The headset implements a technology known as non-invasive Electro Encephalography (EEG) to read the neural activity.

THE CHALLENGES AND FUTURE IMPLICATIONS

With growing advances in this field the future looks hopeful with researchers trying to move upwards from one neuron communicating with one stimulator or sensor to more complex neuro-electronic architectures, with the distant goal of getting entire neuronal networks plugged into electronics in a way that would allow their function to be studied in detail or use them for computational devices.

Thus the major challenge lies in fact that wiring of the spinal cord is basically unknown. At best, on cats, researchers have been able to hook into their optic nerves, to see what a cat can see. And in blind people, we can stimulate a handful of pixels in their brain, but that's about it. The brain is still a black box.

But human trials of brain computer interfacing at basic levels are around the corner.

The brain computer interfacing will become a profoundly transforming technology by 2030. By then, nanobots (robots the size of human blood cells or smaller, built with key features at the multi-nanometer—billionth of a meter—scale) will provide fully immersive, totally convincing virtual reality in the following way. The nanobots will take up positions in close physical proximity to every interneuron connection coming from all of our senses (e.g., eyes, ears, skin). We already have the technology for electronic devices to communicate with neurons in both directions that requires no direct physical contact with the neurons. So behold and watch the endless possibilities unfold in the future in front your eyes.