Brown University creates first wireless, implanted brain-computer interface | Hacker News Reader

Brown University creates first wireless, implanted brain-computer interface

extremetech.com

54 pointsLibertatea17 comments

Today (Monday Mar. 4) is a neuroscience conference at Stanford featuring one of Brown's leading researchers in neuro-engineering. The keynote is "Listening to Neurons: Toward the Restoration of Communication and Mobility". The conference is free and may still have openings: http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a...

Thank you!

Is this streamed or available for viewing later?

Not sure, but the list of speakers are here if you want to pubmed them. Focus on Leigh Hochberg and Krishna Shenoy, they are 2 of the PIs of the BrainGate consortium. http://library.constantcontact.com/download/get/file/1102618...

Implanted BCI stuff isn't new.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrocorticography

Also, these things are read only. They don't implant thoughts in your brain.

My understanding is that the braingate array (and their competitor, the Utah Array) have much finer electrodes than eCoG's which are macroelectrodes, so you can get a finer array of local field potential recordings or even single neuron spike recordings.

Implanted BCI isn't new, but neither are computers, and both have incredible amounts of room to improve and innovate.

Lets see...

Streaming ads into your dreams. Hacking your friend's implant/brain to give them nightmares. "Thought Logging" what a political opponent thinks of you.

I can foresee all of these. Does this give no one else the willies?

Honestly it does, but am an incorrigible optimist :-P I see a 100x or more speed up in science and technological innovation progress. I see progress in colloboration,relationships etc. .

You don't have to sleep for it to work. In fact i just got granted the patent for "contextual advertising based on BCI readings". Now i can haunt your life.

Sounds like a buy-bomb from TRANSMET. 'Though those didn't need implants, just a TV ;)

I foresee inductive charging pillows.

Just don't let your pillow connect to your wireless network, otherwise you might find yourself dreaming of that new Apple product...

What would it actually take to get this type of device approved for human use in terms of regulatory approval? The article doesn't go into details. I have a heuristic that projects at least 10 years into the future for drugs/devices at this early stage of development assuming funding is secured, but not sure if this still holds.

It's usually pretty quick/easy to get stuff approved for in-lab, early human trials. But yeah, much longer until it's available to the public.

>>It's usually pretty quick/easy to get stuff approved for in-lab, early human trials.

I'm surprised -- I thought that even if you had an eager group of volunteers for in-lab, early human trials you still needed to jump through understandably onerous red tape and provide reams of documentation and evidence that the device was safe.

Or does signing a (supposedly ironclad) waiver absolve your right as an early human trial participant to sue in the event of failure or adverse side effects?

shortcut is a humanitarian device exemption (HDE) if you have some good preliminary data, not sure what the exact rules are.

The wired version of this device was in human trials ~10 years ago through cyberkinetics, a startup spun out of brown to commercialize the technology. See NYT article from 2004 talking about the start of their clinical trials: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/13/health/13BRAI.html

there is deep brain stimulation - has been around for 2 decades, although innovation was stagnant because of the patent on its use (basically a rejiggered cardiac pacemaker design). patent now expired, 2 competitor companies readying devices on the market...all sorts of exciting new stuff on the horizon (well FDA timescale which 5 years or so)...

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