Science Beckons
Posted at 14:34:00
on Thu, March 31st 2005 by graham
in:
in the news
science
Brain chip reads man's thoughts
A paralysed man in the US has become the first person to benefit from a brain chip that reads his mind.
This, after being very helpful and exciting to the people to whom it would be most useful - i.e. the paralysed - is seriously, seriously cool:
He can think his TV on and off, change channels and alter the volume thanks to the technology and software linked to devices in his home.
Considering that the software that links those devices up can be modified almost indefinitely (one would think) the possibilities for him are endless.
The challenge now is to create a similar device that would allow a quadriplegic or paraplegic to control their own muscles:
The simple movements we take for granted in fact involve complex electrical signals which will be hard to replicate... there [are] millions of neurones in the brain involved with movement. The brain chip taps into only a very small number of these.
