Are you tired of having to use a mouse, keyboard, touch-screen interface, etc. to operate your personal devices? Well, Intel is well on its way to creating a brain implant that will allow users to operate their computers using only their brainwaves. It isn’t clear when this brain implant will be ready, but Intel claims it will have the implants operational by the year 2020. If this is true, that is, if Intel is able to create a brain implant that can reliably enable humans to remotely operate their computers, the implications are enormous and far-reaching. And we’ve all wanted psychic abilities at one point or another, right?
Dean Pomerleau, a research scientist at Intel, claims that the implant will be able to sense the brain waves generated by the human brain and interpret those brain waves into commands. I presume the chip will also be able to send the signals to a remote receiver built into, or plugged into, a PC.
To achieve this goal, Pomerleau and his colleagues have used FMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) to determine where the blood flows when the subject thinks of certain things. Exactly how this data will be used to measure and interpret brainwaves isn’t specified in the article.
Before the implant is created, however, Pomerleau intends to build the brain-wave sensing technology into a headset that could be used to control a computer. Head-wear that detects brainwaves isn’t anything too new. Necomimi Cat Ears have been around for a few years and they operate by analyzing and interpreting brainwaves. Necomimi Cat Ears reflect the moods of the user by either perking up (focused state), wiggling up and down (“In the zone”), or dropping down (relaxed state). These states of mind correspond with known brainwave patterns: beta, beta, and alpha/theta, respectively.
But the basic sensing capabilities of the Necomimi Cat Ears are a far cry from a brain implant that can precisely identify not only brainwaves but also commands given by those brainwaves AND send those commands to remotely operate a computer.
Pomerleau isn’t worried, though. Pomerleau has confirmed that various research facilities are developing technology to precisely measure brain activity. As for turning brainwaves into commands, two years ago, professor of neurobiology Miguel Nicolelis led a team of scientists in their effort to have a monkey brain control a robot. The project was a success. Additionally, a month before that, another scientist at the University of Arizona made the claim that he had used a moths eyes and brain to guide a robot.
It seems that scientists are making serious inroads into interpreting brain functions into commands, so it isn’t surprising that Pomerleau is confident about his work.
Pomerleau’s ultimate goal is to build a brain implant that can detect and interpret brainwaves AND send commands to a computer. When this is achieved, imagine the social, political, and security repercussions. Just imagine them for now. I’ll talk about the potential repercussions in a future article. Yes, yes, I’m lazy, but this article isn’t about the repercussions. It’s about the technology, itself.
One final thought. When (yes, not if, when) Pomerleau’s implant is created, this will be a huge leap toward another technology that will be exploited to hell and back: a technology that allows for the mass learning of information via uploading it into your brain. If Pomerleau’s implant can send out commands, how long before we have the ability to beam information into someone’s mind? The brain is a very complex thing and, while brains are structurally similar, no two brains are exactly alike (not even the brains of identical twins). However, our understanding of the brain is growing every day, how long before we can directly upload something into someone’s brain? And just what will be uploaded? Just something to think about.
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