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Brain-computer interface
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A brain-computer interface (BCI), sometimes called a direct neural interface or a brain-machine interface, is a direct communication pathway between a human or animal brain (or brain cell culture) and an external device. In one-way BCIs, computers either accept commands from the brain or send signals to it (for example, to restore vision) but not both.[1] Two-way BCIs would allow brains and external devices to exchange information in both directions but have yet to be successfully implanted in animals or humans.
In this definition, the word brain means the brain or nervous system of an organic life form rather than the mind. Computer means any processing or computational device, from simple circuits to silicon chips (including hypothetical future technologies such as quantum computing).
Research on BCIs began in the 1970s, but it wasn't until the mid-1990s that the first working experimental implants in humans appeared. Following years of animal experimentation, early working implants in humans now exist, designed to restore damaged hearing, sight and movement. The common thread throughout the research is the remarkable cortical plasticity of the brain, which often adapts to BCIs, treating prostheses controlled by implants as natural limbs. With recent advances in technology and knowledge, pioneering researchers could now conceivably attempt to produce BCIs that augment human functions rather than simply restoring them, previously only the realm of science fiction.
We're still in the extremely early days of neural computing interfaces, but make no mistake about it, when it comes to directly connecting our brains to our hardware, we're ready and rearin' when the gear is. And lucky us, apparently at least one such system will be shown this week at CeBIT developed by none other than Fraunhofer: the aptly and succinctly dubbed Brain Computer Interface (we'd prefer something a little snappier, say, like the Computer Brain Interface, but whatevs). The system reads brain-waves from 128 scalp electrodes -- very slowly, mind you -- and apparently over the last couple of years they've already honed the device to control a pointer and enable trained users to actually write a sentence with their mind alone (even though it may take between five and ten minutes to do so).
[Via Popgadget]
Project Overview
The long-term objective of this research is to create a multi-position, brain-controlled switch that is activated by signals measured directly from an individual’s brain. We believe that such a switch will allow an individual with a severe disability to have effective control of devices such as assistive appliances, computers, and neural prostheses in natural environments. This type of direct-brain interface would increase an individual’s independence, leading to a dramatically improved quality of life and reduce social costs.
Most often the greatest failing of technical aids for persons with severe physical disabilities is the inadequacy of the human-machine interface. With a universal, effective and efficient interface, current technology has the capability of providing substantial independence and hence, a greatly improved quality of life for even the most severely disabled persons. In pursuit of such an ideal interface, researchers have been studying the feasibility of utilizing electrical brain potentials to directly communicate to devices such as a personal computer system.
Dr. Gary Birch, an Adjunct Professor at the Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UBC and the Executive Director of the Neil Squire Foundation, has spent the last ten years working with other researchers to develop such a direct brain to machine interface.
"It was clear to me that the weakest link in utilizing technology to help people with disabilities is the human machine interface. It is the ability of someone with a disability to be able to control the technology that is the limiting factor, not the technology itself. The ideal interface would be to tap directly into the brain signals."
The technology that we have developed to date is based on methods to detect user-generated patterns in the user’s EEG related to imagined movements. This research is being pursued in three streams:
1) development of new brain-computer interface technology;
2) evaluation of BCI technology across different user populations and under varying conditions; and
3) development of consumer-ready electrode arrays and DSP hardware platform.
پایان نامه در مورد Brain-computer interface