Paralyzed with his hands, he transmits his thoughts directly to the computer

Researchers at Stanford University have made a major breakthrough in brain-machine interface (or BCI) technologies. Just by imagining himself typing a word, a man with his hands paralyzed is able to copy his thoughts onto a computer.

Connect your ideas to a computer

In their study, which was published last May in Nature and presented this Saturday at the WE Summit (a scientific conference held by Tencent), US researchers are working to advance neuroscience. Their subject is a 65-year-old man paralyzed in his hands. He was able to type text on a computer twice as fast as people using the old BCI technology. In short, a revolution.

Until then, paralyzed people using a brain-machine interface would type text by moving the cursor to the desired character or character on a virtual keyboard. But with the work of these researchers and thanks to a new type of brain implant, the patient just had to do it Imagine writing a word On a piece of paper with a pen until it is found on his screen.

To get there, the AI ​​cracks the code nerve signals The patient sends it and makes the imagined word appear on the computer screen. This brain implant system along with the spell checker provides up to 99% accuracy. Great result, even on a classic computer keyboard.

With 90 characters typed in 1 minute, the 65-year-old becomes the world’s fastest mental writer.

But according to neuroscientist Krishna Shinui, this is only the beginning. The face of the iceberg somehow submerged. In fact, he argues, once we truly understand the brain through neuroscience, within a few decades, we should be able to do a better job. And this is in more diverse tasks.

In the eyes of a neuroscientist, the biggest challenge for this discovery will be its commercialization. We will have to convince that a brain transplant is safe and make it affordable for everyone. To do this, he hopes that private companies will invest more resources in research and development.