Brain implant

Using Just His Thoughts, Paralyzed Man Texts at a Record-Breaking 16 Words a Minute

For the first time ever, neuroscientists have translated the cognitive signals associated with handwriting into text, and in real time. The new technique is more than twice as fast than the previous method, allowing a paralyzed man to text at a rate of 90 characters per minute. Researchers with the BrainGate collaboration have developed a…

Health George Dvorsky May 12

In a First, People Had Their Brain Activity Tracked Remotely During Everyday Life

In a new study out Monday, scientists say they can now record people’s brain activity wirelessly throughout the day—a feat that could allow for better research into the brain’s inner workings. They then used that data to adjust the treatment of people with Parkinson’s disease through deep brain stimulation. It’s an exciting advancement, but some…

Health Ed Cara May 3

Neuralink: We Got a Monkey to Play Pong Using Only Its Mind

Neuralink, the secretive neuroscience startup co-founded by Elon Musk, has been even more quiet than usual these days. That is, until this week when it released a YouTube video of a monkey appearing to play the classic video game Pong with its mind. The video stars Pager, a 9-year-old macaque monkey who had a Neuralink…

Tech News Alyse Stanley Apr 10

Intel Is Developing Brain Implants So You Can Channel Surf With Your Mind

Chipmaker Intel is throwing a ton of cash into developing brain implants to help people send text messages with their minds. They are also predicting these implants will be the main way you turn on the TV in 10 years. According to Computerworld: Scientists at Intel’s research lab in Pittsburgh are working to find ways…

io9 Annalee Newitz Nov 20

Scientists Read Pigeons’ Brains For The Secrets Of Their Navigation

According to data recorders strapped to pigeons’ heads, pigeon migration may not be too different from human navigation: the birds use landmarks to navigate, they pay more attention when in cities, and they even recognize other pigeon colonies. In their study, the University of Zurich team hooked pigeons up with in-flight electroencephalographs (EEG) and GPS…

io9 StephenGoldmeier Jun 25

Paralyzed Man Speaks Again Using Brain Implant

A man suffering from “locked in” syndrome, where a fully-conscious person is completely paralyzed except for some eyelid movements, is speaking again using a computer. Doctors report in Nature today that he’s using a brain implant to control speech synthesizing software with his mind. Though it is often difficult to tell when somebody with locked…

io9 Annalee Newitz Nov 21

Prosthetic Speech Implant Turns Your Thoughts to Words

Imagine waking up one morning and being unable to speak. Your mind still churns away, trying to form words, but no sounds will come out. It’s like the bleak ending of Harlan Ellison’s I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream only, you know, real. This is a fact of life for many people with…

io9 Michael Reilly Jul 3

Brain Implants Instead of Prozac

Brain implants are here, and they’re making people happy. It’ll probably still be a while before you can neurointerface directly with the internet or your friends and lovers, but psychologists are testing implantable brain ‘pacemakers’ that regulate brain activity and so far appear really useful for treating the most stubborn forms of depression. We reported…

io9 Michael Reilly May 27

Your Consciousness Is Ten Seconds Behind the Present

The time it takes for sensory input to travel along nerves and get processed by the brains means we’re always living in the past. Okay, no problem — we can live with a few lost milliseconds. But ten seconds? A new study shows that once our brains make a decision (like “push this button”) it…

io9 Michael Reilly Apr 14

Ultrathin, Rubbery Circuits Bring Us One Step Closer to Google Brain Implants

A new kind of computer circuit printed on ultrathin rubber would make the perfect “brain wrapper,” says its inventor. Usually computer circuits are etched on rigid, plastic boards, but University of Illinois researcher John Rogers has successfully placed circuits on a rubbery material that can bend and stretch. Many groups have been working on developing…

io9 Annalee Newitz Mar 27

The Pros and Cons of a Google Brain Implant

In John Varley’s upcoming scifi novel Rolling Thunder, everyone has a brain implant that lets them google information constantly. And many futurists are saying this technology will become a reality long before we colonize Mars. The question isn’t whether we’ll have google brain implants (or the futuristic search engine equivalent), but how we’ll handle them.…

io9 Annalee Newitz Feb 22

What Is an io9?

io9s were marketed as cheap time machines in the 2070s. They were actually just low-grade input/output devices for the brain that tuned tachyon waves and gave users vivid images of possible futures. The things were so addictive, and drove so many people insane, that io9s were eventually outlawed. Today the word is just slang. io9ers…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jan 2

Using Just His Thoughts, Paralyzed Man Texts at a Record-Breaking 16 Words a Minute

In a First, People Had Their Brain Activity Tracked Remotely During Everyday Life

Neuralink: We Got a Monkey to Play Pong Using Only Its Mind

Intel Is Developing Brain Implants So You Can Channel Surf With Your Mind

Scientists Read Pigeons’ Brains For The Secrets Of Their Navigation

Paralyzed Man Speaks Again Using Brain Implant

Prosthetic Speech Implant Turns Your Thoughts to Words

Brain Implants Instead of Prozac

Your Consciousness Is Ten Seconds Behind the Present

Ultrathin, Rubbery Circuits Bring Us One Step Closer to Google Brain Implants

The Pros and Cons of a Google Brain Implant

What Is an io9?

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