Latest Brain–computer interface Stories
SAN JOSE, Calif. and SAN DIEGO, June 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading biosensor company NeuroSky launches the YouTube sensation, Necomimi, in the US at Comic-Con in the San Diego Convention Center. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120628/SF33199LOGO) A concept born in Japan by Neurowear, a fashion electronics company, Necomimi's popularity skyrocketed within the anime and costume communities. Now general audiences are clamoring for the fascinating brainwave cat ears...
Implantable fuel cell built at MIT could power neural prosthetics that help patients regain control of limbs. MIT engineers have developed a fuel cell that runs on the same sugar that powers human cells: glucose. This glucose fuel cell could be used to drive highly efficient brain implants of the future, which could help paralyzed patients move their arms and legs again. The fuel cell, described in the June 12 edition of the journal PLoS ONE, strips electrons from glucose molecules to...
[ Watch the Video ] Connie K. Ho for RedOrbit.com For one lucky woman, 15 years of paralysis was broken on Saturday, April 12 when the 58-year-old woman, who is unable to speak, controlled a robotic arm by thinking about a particular action. This resulted in the robotic arm picking up a bottle of coffee, lifting it her to mouth, allowing her to take a sip. This feat is part of the progress made in a project regarding brain-computer interfaces restorative neurotechnology and assistive...
Mobility is something most of us take for granted, and when we lose that ability through paralysis we lose a huge part of our independence. Now, a team of Swiss scientists are making strides in giving paraplegics back at least some of their mobility through the use of a new mind-controlled robot. The robot is controlled by the brainwaves of a paraplegic wearing an electrode-fitted cap. The person wearing the cap, Mark-Andre Duc, demonstrated the device from a hospital in the Swiss town of...
New technology bypasses spinal cord and delivers electrical signals from brain directly to muscles A new Northwestern Medicine brain-machine technology delivers messages from the brain directly to the muscles -- bypassing the spinal cord -- to enable voluntary and complex movement of a paralyzed hand. The device could eventually be tested on, and perhaps aid, paralyzed patients. "We are eavesdropping on the natural electrical signals from the brain that tell the arm and hand how to...
Princeton University researchers have used a novel virtual reality and brain imaging system to detect a form of neural activity underlying how the brain forms short-term memories that are used in making decisions. By following the brain activity of mice as they navigated a virtual reality maze, the researchers found that populations of neurons fire in distinctive sequences when the brain is holding a memory. Previous research centered on the idea that populations of neurons fire together...
Opening the door to the development of thought-controlled prosthetic devices to help people with spinal cord injuries, amputations and other impairments, neuroscientists at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Champalimaud Center for the Unknown in Portugal have demonstrated that the brain is more flexible and trainable than previously thought. Their new study, to be published Sunday, March 4, in the advanced online publication of the journal Nature, shows that through a process...
SCHIEDLBERG, Austria, March 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- In 2009, g.tec introduced the intendiX-SPELLER, the first commercially available brain-computer-interface (BCI) system for home use. Soon, g.tec will release the intendiX-SOCI (screen-overlay-control-interface), allowing people to control PC-applications such as computer games with a brain-computer interface. Although this system will not be available until later in 2012, g.tec will host the first public demonstration...
The same technology currently used to help stimulate parts of the brain and help stroke, dementia, and depression patients could be adapted to create weapons that can be fired with a single thought and other non-medical purposes, leading a prominent group of British scientists to open an investigation into the ethical, social, and legal issues surrounding what they refer to as "novel neurotechnologies." One type of this technology, known as deep brain stimulation (DBS), is currently used...
As is the fate of nearly all scientific and technological advances, military experts are already prowling for ways to convert recent advances in neuroscience into advantages on the battlefield. And with the science of the brain progressing by leaps and bounds in recent years, ideas for new military technology are already being tossed around that would have been written off as science fiction just a few years ago. In a report published in the UK on Tuesday, a panel of scientists,...
