Brain-Computer Interface

Neurotechnologies have emerged as an exciting new field, promising novel and innovative assistive solutions that can transform the lives of persons with many types of disabilities. While these neurotechnologies, including brain-computer interfaces, have been under development for some time, major players have recently entered the field, accelerating research and development, increasing investments and competition, and showing definite progress towards marketable solutions.

The K. Lisa Yang Center for Bionics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has been established to explicitly study the fusion of the human body with advanced technology like robotic exoskeletons and brain-computer interfaces with the ambitious goal of developing systems to restore function for people with physical and neurological disabilities. Read more via Futurism.

In this webinar from Wearable Sensing, Walid Soussou introduces audiences to dry electrode EEG wearables, how they work, and applications for the real world and virtual reality. An overview of the headset design and its signal quality is demonstrated through both resting and ambulatory activities. For more on how the dry electrode headsets work and integrate with BCI tools, watch the webinar on-demand on YouTube.

In this webinar from Wearable Sensing, practical BCI devices are explored using dry electrode EEG headsets. Applications include Alternative and Augmented Communication for persons with speech or communication disabilities, robotic exoskeletons for persons with paralysis, and neurofeedback for persons with cognitive disabilities. Watch on-demand via YouTube.

Neurolutions recently received FDA "breakthrough" status for its IpsiHand device that enables a person who may be paralyzed from stroke to move some parts of their arm and hand.

In this article published by researchers at Brown University, the usually cumbersome cables necessary for implanted brain-computer interfaces (BCI) were replaced by wireless transmitters and maintained high-resolution recording and decoding of neural activity from two end users with paralysis.

A team of researchers has taken a key step toward a new concept for a future BCI system — one that employs a coordinated network of independent, wireless microscale neural sensors known as 'neurograins', each about the size of a grain of salt, to record and stimulate brain activity. Read more via Neuroscience News.

In this episode of Evolving Digital Self, Cognixion Founder & CEO Andreas Forsland speaks with Dr. Heidi Forbes Öste about augmented and alternative communication through more intuitive technology. Speakprose is Cognixion's award-winning app that helps give a voice to those who may non-verbal. A designer by training, Andreas Forsland also discusses the foundational practice of creating solutions that are accessible to all abilities through Universal Design principles.

In this resource from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA), the Center for Devices and Radiological Health provides recommendations for non-clinical testing and clinical studies for implanted BCI systems that have the potential to benefit persons with disabilities. Read the Final Guidance Document via the FDA's website.

Researchers successfully translated intended speech into sentences on a computer screen from the brain signals of a man who is paralyzed and is unable to speak. Dr. Edward Chang, a neurosurgeon at the University of California, San Francisco, led the team that developed the breakthrough in the latest of over a decade of work to help those with paralysis communicate even if they are unable to speak.