The system uses two 4x4 mm brain implants and a machine learning algorithm to pick out and analyze the specific cognitive signals associated with handwriting. It then produces the letters the user is thinking of on the screen in real time. The man using the system just had to visualize “writing the letters one on top of another with a pen on a yellow legal pad” and what he was thinking of would get typed out.
Can an implant allow you to type with just your imagination?
Answer: Yes.
Designed for people with severe motor and speech impairments, a new system from the BrainGate collaboration allows users to type just by imagining doing so. In a recent test, a 65-year-old man paralyzed from the shoulders down was able to text at a rate of 90 characters per minute.
The system uses two 4x4 mm brain implants and a machine learning algorithm to pick out and analyze the specific cognitive signals associated with handwriting. It then produces the letters the user is thinking of on the screen in real time. The man using the system just had to visualize “writing the letters one on top of another with a pen on a yellow legal pad” and what he was thinking of would get typed out.
The system can’t feasibly be replicated as it is now, considering that it involves brain surgery to install the implants and has to be hooked up to a very sophisticated computer. It also isn’t generalized, meaning it has to first be taught each individual user’s unique cognitive nuances. But the team behind it envisions it eventually becoming “wireless, always available and self-calibrating.”
The system uses two 4x4 mm brain implants and a machine learning algorithm to pick out and analyze the specific cognitive signals associated with handwriting. It then produces the letters the user is thinking of on the screen in real time. The man using the system just had to visualize “writing the letters one on top of another with a pen on a yellow legal pad” and what he was thinking of would get typed out.
