Successfully connecting "Nexus 9" to the brain of ALS patients and let them browse

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)For people suffering from diseases such as diseases such as spinal cord injury or spinal cord injury, you can receive signals from the brain and move machines and terminalsBrain machine interfaceAlthough it is under development, Stanford University seems to have succeeded in browsing by connecting the brain of ALS patient and Nexus 9.

Scientists Connect Brain to a Basic Tablet - Paralyzed Patient Googles With Ease - Singularity HUB
http://singularityhub.com/2015/10/25/scientists-connect-brain-to-a-basic-tablet-paralyzed-patient-googles-with-ease/


Society for Neuroscience
https://www.sfn.org/annual-meeting/neuroscience-2015

There are millions of people worldwide suffering from neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS and paralysis of the body due to spinal cord injury. A female patient "T6" who is cooperating in the clinical trial at Stanford University can hardly move down from the neck.

What is expected is a brain-machine interface. Attempts have been made to move the mouse cursor by tracking gaze and head movements, for example, to connect to the output, and various devices are being developed, but there are still inaccuracies in tracking technology, gaze There is a problem that the eye of users is extremely tired if it is pursuit.

The solution to this was presented by Stanford UniversityPaul NuyujukianIt is a doctoral method using nerve engineering. A method to embed a microarray chip in the brain and directly connect the brain and the computer, not through sensory organs such as hands. The neural signals related to intention are decoded in real time by the latest algorithm and the mouse cursor can be moved.

ByChris Potter

Dr. Nuyujukina's page "ResearchThe image of how the female patient actually performs the operation is posted in the item of "


It was around 2013 that Nuyujukian's team and others began challenging this problem with female patients. Embed the array in the left brain that controls movement and record the activity of the brain when the woman gazes at the target character. It converts the signal to the actual operation of cursor movement and click. In other words, it is an input in such a style that a person who is not good at keyboard operation guesses the keyboard with just the index finger. At that time we were proud of the high precision with state-of-the-art technology, but the process was very slow, and it was necessary to shift the line of sight to the "Delete" key frequently, even if we had a long training .

Doctors and others realize that a more flexible input method is necessary.Point and clickBecause it is similar to the operation of tapping the touch screen, I decided to utilize the tablet already on the market instead of developing the touch screen terminal by themselves.

ByMatteo Doni

The research team who purchased and set up Nexus 9 immediately customized it so that female patients can read the brain wave of where they tried to tap. Using a browser application, even with a fine character link, it will not be stuck in operation, QWERTY keyboard can be used without difficulty, and women are currently accessing Google Play.

From previous studies, it is known that microarray chips do not suffer from hard and soft, double-sided problems for at least 2 years, but the team is in the process of making improvements so that it can be used for a longer time.