Brain–computer interface

A brain–computer interface (BCI), generally alleged a mind-machine interface (MMI), or sometimes alleged a absolute neural interface or a brain–machine interface (BMI), is a absolute advice alleyway amid the academician and an alien device. BCIs are generally directed at assisting, augmenting, or acclimation beastly cerebral or sensory-motor functions.

Research on BCIs began in the 1970s at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) beneath a admission from the National Science Foundation, followed by a arrangement from DARPA.12 The affidavit appear afterwards this analysis aswell mark the aboriginal actualization of the announcement brain–computer interface in accurate literature.

The acreage of BCI analysis and development has back focused primarily on neuroprosthetics applications that aim at abating damaged hearing, afterimage and movement. Thanks to the arresting cortical bendability of the brain, signals from built-in prostheses can, afterwards adaptation, be handled by the academician like accustomed sensor or effector channels.3 Following years of beastly experimentation, the aboriginal neuroprosthetic accessories built-in in bodies appeared in the mid-1990s.

History

The history of brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) starts with Hans Berger's analysis of the electrical action of the animal academician and the development of electroencephalography (EEG). In 1924 Berger was the aboriginal to almanac animal academician action by agency of EEG. By allegory EEG traces, Berger was able to analyze oscillatory action in the brain, such as the alpha beachcomber (8–12 Hz), aswell accepted as Berger's wave.

Berger's aboriginal recording accessory was actual rudimentary. He amid argent affairs beneath the scalps of his patients. These were after replaced by argent foils absorbed to the patients' arch by elastic bandages. Berger affiliated these sensors to a Lippmann capillary electrometer, with black results. More adult barometer devices, such as the Siemens double-coil recording galvanometer, which displayed electric voltages as baby as one ten thousandth of a volt, led to success.

Berger analyzed the accord of alternations in his EEG beachcomber diagrams with academician diseases. EEGs acceptable absolutely new possibilities for the analysis of animal academician activities.

BCI versus neuroprosthetics

Neuroprosthetics is an breadth of neuroscience anxious with neural prostheses. That is, application bogus accessories to alter the action of broken afraid systems and academician accompanying problems, or of acoustic organs. The a lot of broadly acclimated neuroprosthetic accessory is the circling implant which, as of 2006, had been built-in in about 100,000 humans worldwide.4 There are aswell several neuroprosthetic accessories that aim to restore vision, including retinal implants.

The aberration amid BCIs and neuroprosthetics is mostly in how the agreement are used: neuroprosthetics about affix the afraid arrangement to a device, admitting BCIs usually affix the academician (or afraid system) with a computer system. Practical neuroprosthetics can be affiliated to any allotment of the afraid system—for example, borderline nerves—while the appellation "BCI" usually designates a narrower chic of systems which interface with the axial afraid system.

The agreement are sometimes, however, acclimated interchangeably. Neuroprosthetics and BCIs seek to accomplish the aforementioned aims, such as abating sight, hearing, movement, adeptness to communicate, and even cerebral function. Both use agnate beginning methods and surgical techniques.

Animal BCI research

Several laboratories accept managed to almanac signals from monkey and rat bookish cortices to accomplish BCIs to aftermath movement. Monkeys accept navigated computer cursors on awning and allowable automatic accoutrements to accomplish simple tasks artlessly by cerebration about the assignment and seeing the beheld feedback, but after any motor output.5 In May 2008 photographs that showed a monkey, at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, operating a automatic arm by thinking, were appear in a amount of able-bodied accepted science journals and magazines.6 Other research, on cats, has decoded their neaural beheld signals.

edit Early work

Monkey operating a automatic arm with brain–computer interfacing (Schwartz lab, University of Pittsburgh)

In 1969 the operant conditioning studies of Fetz and colleagues, at the Regional Primate Analysis Center and Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, showed for the aboriginal time that monkeys could apprentice to ascendancy the angle of a biofeedback beat arm with neural activity.7 Similar plan in the 1970s accustomed that monkeys could bound apprentice to voluntarily ascendancy the battlefront ante of alone and assorted neurons in the primary motor case if they were adored for breeding adapted patterns of neural activity.8

Studies that developed algorithms to reconstruct movements from motor case neurons, which ascendancy movement, date aback to the 1970s. In the 1980s, Apostolos Georgopoulos at Johns Hopkins University begin a algebraic accord amid the electrical responses of individual motor case neurons in rhesus macaque monkeys and the administration in which they confused their accoutrements (based on a cosine function). He aswell begin that broadcast groups of neurons, in altered areas of the monkey's brains, collectively controlled motor commands. But he was able to almanac the firings of neurons in alone one breadth at a time, because of the abstruse limitations imposed by his equipment.9

There has been accelerated development in BCIs back the mid-1990s.10 Several groups accept been able to abduction circuitous academician motor case signals by recording from neural apparel (groups of neurons) and application these to ascendancy alien devices. Notable analysis groups accept been led by Richard Andersen, John Donoghue, Phillip Kennedy, Miguel Nicolelis and Andrew Schwartz.

edit Arresting analysis successes

edit Kennedy and Yang Dan

Phillip Kennedy (who after founded Neural Signals in 1987) and colleagues congenital the aboriginal intracortical brain–computer interface by implanting neurotrophic-cone electrodes into monkeys.citation needed

Yang Dan and colleagues' recordings of cat eyes application a BCI built-in in the crabbed geniculate basis (top row: aboriginal image; basal row: recording)

In 1999, advisers led by Yang Dan at the University of California, Berkeley decoded neuronal firings to carbon images apparent by cats. The aggregation acclimated an arrangement of electrodes anchored in the thalamus (which integrates all of the brain’s acoustic input) of advertent cats. Advisers targeted 177 academician beef in the thalamus crabbed geniculate basis area, which decodes signals from the retina. The bodies were apparent eight abbreviate movies, and their neuron firings were recorded. Application algebraic filters, the advisers decoded the signals to accomplish movies of what the bodies saw and were able to reconstruct apparent scenes and affective objects.11 Similar after-effects in bodies accept back been accomplished by advisers in Japan (see below).

edit Nicolelis

Miguel Nicolelis has been a arresting backer of application assorted electrodes advance over a greater breadth of the academician to admission neuronal signals to drive a BCI. Such neural apparel are said to abate the airheadedness in achievement produced by individual electrodes, which could accomplish it difficult to accomplish a BCI.

After administering antecedent studies in rats during the 1990s, Nicolelis and his colleagues developed BCIs that decoded academician action in owl monkeys and acclimated the accessories to carbon monkey movements in automatic arms. Monkeys accept avant-garde extensive and acquisitive abilities and acceptable duke abetment skills, authoritative them ideal analysis capacity for this affectionate of work.

By 2000 the accumulation succeeded in architecture a BCI that reproduced owl monkey movements while the monkey operated a joystick or accomplished for food.12 The BCI operated in absolute time and could aswell ascendancy a abstracted apprentice accidentally over Internet protocol. But the monkeys could not see the arm affective and did not accept any feedback, a alleged open-loop BCI.

Diagram of the BCI developed by Miguel Nicolelis and colleagues for use on Rhesus monkeys

Later abstracts by Nicolelis application rhesus monkeys succeeded in closing the acknowledgment bend and reproduced monkey extensive and acquisitive movements in a apprentice arm. With their acutely broken and channelled brains, rhesus monkeys are advised to be bigger models for animal neurophysiology than owl monkeys. The monkeys were accomplished to ability and butt altar on a computer awning by manipulating a joystick while agnate movements by a apprentice arm were hidden.1314 The monkeys were after apparent the apprentice anon and abstruse to ascendancy it by examination its movements. The BCI acclimated acceleration predictions to ascendancy extensive movements and accompanying predicted handgripping force.

edit Donoghue, Schwartz and Andersen

Other laboratories which accept developed BCIs and algorithms that break neuron signals cover those run by John Donoghue at Brown University, Andrew Schwartz at the University of Pittsburgh and Richard Andersen at Caltech. These advisers accept been able to aftermath alive BCIs, even application recorded signals from far beneath neurons than did Nicolelis (15–30 neurons against 50–200 neurons).

Donoghue's accumulation appear training rhesus monkeys to use a BCI to clue beheld targets on a computer screen(closed-loop BCI) with or after abetment of a joystick.15 Schwartz's accumulation created a BCI for three-dimensional tracking in basic absoluteness and aswell reproduced BCI ascendancy in a automatic arm.16 The aforementioned accumulation aswell created account if they approved that a monkey could augment itself pieces of bake-apple and marshmallows application a automatic arm controlled by the animal's own academician signals.171819

Andersen's accumulation acclimated recordings of premovement action from the after parietal case in their BCI, including signals created if beginning animals advancing accepting a reward.20

edit Other research

In accession to admiration kinematic and active ambit of limb movements, BCIs that adumbrate electromyographic or electrical action of the anatomy of primates are getting developed.21 Such BCIs could be acclimated to restore advancement in bedridden limbs by electrically aesthetic muscles.

Miguel Nicolelis and colleagies approved that the action of ample neural apparel can adumbrate arm position. This plan fabricated accessible conception of BCIs that apprehend arm movement intentions and construe them into movements of bogus actuators. Carmena and colleagues,13 programmed the neural coding in a BCI that accustomed a monkey to ascendancy extensive and acquisitive movements by a automatic arm. Lebedev and colleagues,14 argued that academician networks accommodate to actualize a new representation of the automatic addendum in accession to the representation of the animal's own limbs.

The better impediment to BCI technology at present is the abridgement of a sensor modality that provides safe, authentic and able-bodied admission to academician signals. It is believable or even likely, however, that such a sensor will be developed aural the next twenty years. The use of such a sensor should abundantly aggrandize the ambit of advice functions that can be provided application a BCI.

Development and accomplishing of a BCI arrangement is circuitous and time consuming. In acknowledgment to this problem, Dr. Gerwin Schalk has been developing a general-purpose arrangement for BCI research, alleged BCI2000. BCI2000 has been in development back 2000 in a action led by the Brain–Computer Interface R&D Program at the Wadsworth Center of the New York State Department of Health in Albany, New York, USA.

A new 'wireless' access uses light-gated ion channels such as Channelrhodopsin to ascendancy the action of genetically authentic subsets of neurons in vivo. In the ambience of a simple acquirements task, beam of transfected beef in the somatosensory case afflicted the accommodation authoritative action of advisedly affective mice.22

edit The BCI Award

The Annual BCI Award, able with 3,000 USD, is awarded in acceptance of outstanding and avant-garde researchin the acreage of Brain-Computer Interfaces. Each year, a acclaimed analysis class is asked to adjudicator the submitted projects and to accolade the prize. The board consists of world-leading BCI experts recruited by the application laboratory. Cuntai Guan, Kai Keng Ang, Karen Sui Geok Chua and Beng Ti Ang, from A*STAR in Singapore, with their action "Motor imagery-based Brain-Computer Interface automatic rehabilitation for stroke", won the BCI Accolade 2010. Moritz Grosse-Wentrup and Bernhard Schölkopf, from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Germany, with their action "What are the neuro-physiological causes of achievement variations in brain-computer interfacing?" won the BCI Accolade 2011.

Human BCI research

Invasive BCIs

edit Vision

Jens Naumann, a man with acquired blindness, getting interviewed about his eyes BCI on CBS's The Aboriginal Show

Invasive BCI assay has targeted acclimation damaged afterimage and accouterment new functionality for bodies with paralysis. Invasive BCIs are built-in anon into the blah amount of the academician during neurosurgery. As they blow in the blah matter, invasive accessories aftermath the accomplished aloft signals of BCI accessories but are decumbent to scar-tissue build-up, causing the arresting to become weaker or even absent as the physique reacts to a adopted article in the brain.

In eyes science, absolute academician implants accept been acclimated to amusement non-congenital (acquired) blindness. One of the aboriginal scientists to aftermath a alive academician interface to restore afterimage was clandestine researcher William Dobelle.

Dobelle's aboriginal ancestor was built-in into "Jerry", a man addled in adulthood, in 1978. A single-array BCI absolute 68 electrodes was built-in assimilate Jerry’s beheld case and succeeded in bearing phosphenes, the awareness of seeing light. The arrangement included cameras army on glasses to forward signals to the implant. Initially, the implant accustomed Jerry to see shades of blah in a bound acreage of eyes at a low frame-rate. This aswell appropriate him to be absorbed up to a adipose mainframe computer, but shrinking electronics and faster computers fabricated his bogus eye added carriageable and now accredit him to accomplish simple tasks unassisted.23

Dummy assemblage illustrating the architecture of a BrainGate interface

In 2002, Jens Naumann, aswell addled in adulthood, became the aboriginal in a alternation of 16 paying patients to accept Dobelle’s additional bearing implant, appearance one of the ancient bartering uses of BCIs. The additional bearing accessory acclimated a added adult implant enabling bigger mapping of phosphenes into articular vision. Phosphenes are advance out beyond the beheld acreage in what advisers alarm "the starry-night effect". Immediately afterwards his implant, Jens was able to use his abominably adequate eyes to drive an auto boring about the parking breadth of the assay institute.

edit Movement

BCIs absorption on motor neuroprosthetics aim to either restore movement in individuals with aeroembolism or accommodate accessories to abetment them, such as interfaces with computers or apprentice arms.

Researchers at Emory University in Atlanta, led by Philip Kennedy and Roy Bakay, were aboriginal to install a academician implant in a animal that produced signals of top abundant aloft to simulate movement. Their patient, Johnny Ray (1944–2002), suffered from ‘locked-in syndrome’ afterwards adversity a brain-stem achievement in 1997. Ray’s implant was installed in 1998 and he lived continued abundant to alpha alive with the implant, eventually acquirements to ascendancy a computer cursor; he died in 2002 of a academician aneurysm.24

Tetraplegic Matt Nagle became the aboriginal being to ascendancy an bogus duke appliance a BCI in 2005 as allotment of the aboriginal nine-month animal balloon of Cyberkinetics’s BrainGate chip-implant. Built-in in Nagle’s appropriate precentral gyrus (area of the motor case for arm movement), the 96-electrode BrainGate implant accustomed Nagle to ascendancy a automatic arm by cerebration about affective his duke as able-bodied as a computer cursor, lights and TV.25 One year later, assistant Jonathan Wolpawwho? accustomed the amount of the Altran Foundation for Innovation to advance a Academician Computer Interface with electrodes amid on the apparent of the skull, instead of anon in the brain.

edit Partially invasive BCIs

Partially invasive BCI accessories are built-in central the skull but blow alfresco the academician rather than aural the blah matter. They aftermath bigger resolution signals than non-invasive BCIs breadth the cartilage tissue of the attic deflects and deforms signals and accept a lower accident of basal scar-tissue in the academician than absolutely invasive BCIs.

Electrocorticography (ECoG) measures the electrical action of the academician taken from beneath the skull in a agnate way to non-invasive electroencephalography (see below), but the electrodes are anchored in a attenuate artificial pad that is placed aloft the cortex, beneath the dura mater.26 ECoG technologies were aboriginal trialed in bodies in 2004 by Eric Leuthardt and Daniel Moran from Washington University in St Louis. In a after trial, the advisers enabled a boyish boy to play Space Invaders appliance his ECoG implant.27 This assay indicates that ascendancy is rapid, requires basal training, and may be an ideal tradeoff with commendations to arresting allegiance and akin of invasiveness.

(Note: these electrodes had not been built-in in the accommodating with the ambition of developing a BCI. The accommodating had been adversity from astringent attack and the electrodes were briefly built-in to advice his physicians localize admission foci; the BCI advisers artlessly took advantage of this.)

Signals can be either subdural or epidural, but are not taken from aural the academician parenchyma itself. It has not been advised abundantly until afresh due to the bound admission of subjects. Currently, the alone address to access the arresting for abstraction is through the use of patients acute invasive ecology for localization and resection of an epileptogenic focus.

ECoG is a actual able boilerplate BCI modality because it has college spatial resolution, bigger signal-to-noise ratio, added abundance range, and bottom training requirements than scalp-recorded EEG, and at the aforementioned time has lower abstruse difficulty, lower analytic risk, and apparently aloft abiding adherence than intracortical single-neuron recording. This affection contour and contempo affirmation of the top akin of ascendancy with basal training requirements shows abeyant for absolute apple appliance for bodies with motor disabilities.

Light Reactive Imaging BCI accessories are still in the branch of theory. These would absorb implanting a laser central the skull. The laser would be accomplished on a alone neuron and the neuron's reflectance abstinent by a abstracted sensor. If the neuron fires, the laser ablaze arrangement and wavelengths it reflects would change slightly. This would acquiesce advisers to adviser alone neurons but crave beneath acquaintance with tissue and abate the accident of scar-tissue build-up.

edit Non-invasive BCIs

As able-bodied as invasive experiments, there accept aswell been abstracts in bodies appliance non-invasive neuroimaging technologies as interfaces. Signals recorded in this way accept been acclimated to ability beef implants and restore fractional movement in an alpha volunteer. Although they are simple to wear, non-invasive implants aftermath poor arresting resolution because the skull dampens signals, dispersing and abashing the electromagnetic after-effects created by the neurons. Although the after-effects can still be detected it is added difficult to actuate the breadth of the academician that created them or the accomplishments of alone neurons.

edit EEG

edit Background

Recordings of brainwaves produced by an electroencephalogram

Electroencephalography (EEG) is the a lot of advised abeyant non-invasive interface, mainly due to its accomplished banausic resolution, affluence of use, portability and low start-up cost. But as able-bodied as the technology's susceptibility to noise, addition abundant barrier to appliance EEG as a brain–computer interface is the all-encompassing training appropriate afore users can plan the technology. For example, in abstracts alpha in the mid-1990s, Niels Birbaumer at the University of Tübingen in Germany accomplished acutely paralysed bodies to self-regulate the apathetic cortical potentials in their EEG to such an admeasurement that these signals could be acclimated as a bifold arresting to ascendancy a computer cursor.28 (Birbaumer had beforehand accomplished epileptics to anticipate approaching fits by authoritative this low voltage wave.) The agreement saw ten patients accomplished to move a computer cursor by authoritative their brainwaves. The action was slow, acute added than an hour for patients to address 100 characters with the cursor, while training generally took abounding months.

Another assay constant is the blazon of oscillatory action that is measured. Birbaumer's after assay with Jonathan Wolpaw at New York State University has focused on developing technology that would acquiesce users to accept the academician signals they begin easiest to accomplish a BCI, including mu and beta rhythms.

A added constant is the adjustment of acknowledgment acclimated and this is apparent in studies of P300 signals. Patterns of P300 after-effects are generated involuntarily (stimulus-feedback) if bodies see something they admit and may acquiesce BCIs to break categories of thoughts after training patients first. By contrast, the biofeedback methods declared aloft crave acquirements to ascendancy brainwaves so the consistent academician action can be detected.

Lawrence Farwell and Emanuel Donchin developed an EEG-based brain–computer interface in the 1980s.29 Their "mental prosthesis" acclimated the P300 afflatus acknowledgment to acquiesce subjects, including one bedridden Locked-In affection patient, to acquaint words, belletrist and simple commands to a computer and thereby to allege through a accent synthesizer apprenticed by the computer. A amount of agnate accessories accept been developed back then. In 2000, for example, assay by Jessica Bayliss at the University of Rochester showed that volunteers cutting basal absoluteness helmets could ascendancy elements in a basal apple appliance their P300 EEG readings, including axis lights on and off and bringing a cartoon car to a stop.30

edit Dry alive electrode arrays

In the aboriginal 1990s Babak Taheri, at University of California, Davis approved the aboriginal alone and aswell multichannel dry alive electrode arrays appliance micro-machining. The alone approach dry EEG electrode architecture and after-effects were appear in 1994.31 The arrayed electrode was aswell approved to accomplish able-bodied compared to Silver/Silver Chloride electrodes. The accessory consisted of four sites of sensors with chip electronics to abate babble by impedance matching. The advantages of such electrodes are: (1) no electrolyte used, (2) no derma preparation, (3) decidedly bargain sensor size, and (4) affinity with EEG ecology systems. The alive electrode arrangement is an chip arrangement fabricated of an arrangement of capacitive sensors with bounded chip chip housed in a amalgamation with batteries to ability the circuitry. This akin of affiliation was appropriate to accomplish the anatomic achievement acquired by the electrode.

The electrode was activated on an electrical assay bank and on animal capacity in four modalities of EEG activity, namely: (1) ad-lib EEG, (2) acoustic event-related potentials, (3) academician axis potentials, and (4) cerebral event-related potentials. The achievement of the dry electrode compared agreeably with that of the accepted wet electrodes in agreement of derma preparation, no gel requirements (dry), and college signal-to-noise ratio.32

In 1999 advisers at Case Western Reserve University, in Cleveland, Ohio, led by Hunter Peckham, acclimated 64-electrode EEG beanie to acknowledgment bound duke movements to quadriplegic Jim Jatich. As Jatich concentrated on simple but adverse concepts like up and down, his beta-rhythm EEG achievement was analysed appliance software to assay patterns in the noise. A basal arrangement was articular and acclimated to ascendancy a switch: Aloft boilerplate action was set to on, beneath boilerplate off. As able-bodied as enabling Jatich to ascendancy a computer cursor the signals were aswell acclimated to drive the assumption controllers anchored in his hands, abating some movement.33

edit Other research

Electronic neural networks accept been deployed which about-face the acquirements appearance from the user to the computer. Abstracts by scientists at the Fraunhofer Society in 2004 appliance neural networks led to apparent improvements aural 30 account of training.34

Experiments by Eduardo Miranda, at the University of Plymouth in the UK, has aimed to use EEG recordings of brainy action associated with music to acquiesce the disabled to accurate themselves musically through an encephalophone.35 Ramaswamy Palaniappan has pioneered the development of BCI for use in biometrics to identify/authenticate a person.36 The BCI accumulation at University of Essex has aswell developed alternation cursor ascendancy appliance thoughts.37

The Emotiv aggregation has been affairs a bartering video bold controller, accepted as The Epoc, back December 2009. The Epoc uses electromagnetic sensors.3839

The aboriginal BCI affair with 100% accurateness (based on 80 appropriate duke and 80 larboard duke movement imaginations) was recorded in 1998 by Christoph Guger. The BCI arrangement acclimated 27 electrodes overlaying the sensorimotor cortex, abounding the electrodes with Common Spatial Patterns, affected the active about-face and acclimated a beeline discriminant analysis.40

Research is advancing into aggressive use of BCIs and back the 1970s DARPA has been allotment assay on this topic. 12 The accepted focus of researxh is user-to-user advice through assay of neural signals.41 The activity "Silent Talk" aims to ascertain and assay the word-specific neural signals, appliance EEG, which action afore accent is vocalized, and to see if the patterns are generalizable.42

MEG and MRI

Magnetoencephalography (MEG) and anatomic alluring resonance imaging (fMRI) accept both been acclimated auspiciously as non-invasive BCIs.43 In a broadly appear experiment, fMRI accustomed two users getting scanned to play Pong in real-time by altering their haemodynamic acknowledgment or academician claret breeze through biofeedback techniques.44

fMRI abstracts of haemodynamic responses in absolute time accept aswell been acclimated to ascendancy apprentice accoutrements with a seven additional adjournment amid anticipation and movement.45

In 2008 analysis developed in the Advanced Telecommunications Analysis (ATR) Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Kyoto, Japan, accustomed the scientists to reconstruct images anon from the academician and affectation them on a computer. The commodity announcement these achievements was the awning adventure of the account Neuron of 10 December 2008.46 While the aboriginal after-effects are bound to atramentous and white images of 10x10 squares (pixels), according to the advisers added development of the technology may accomplish it accessible to accomplish blush images, and even appearance or almanac dreams.4748

In 2011 advisers from UC Berkeley published49 a abstraction advertisement second-by-second about-face of videos watched by the study's subjects, from fMRI data. This was accomplished by creating a statistical archetypal apropos beheld patterns in videos apparent to the subjects, to the academician action acquired by watching the videos. This archetypal was again acclimated to attending up the 100 one-second video segments, in a database of 18 actor abnormal of accidental YouTube videos, whose beheld patterns a lot of carefully akin the academician action recorded if capacity watched a new video. These 100 one-second video extracts were again accumulated into a mashed-up angel that resembled the video getting watched.505152

edit ELF/SLF/ULF radio

Neurons afford anemic radio signals beyond the ELF/SLF/ULF abundance bands which are apparent remotely.53 There accept been letters that brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) utilising these bands may be achievable, as radio activity in these abundance ranges can be captivated by neurons.54555657

edit Commercialization

John Donoghue and adolescent advisers founded Cyberkinetics. The aggregation markets its electrode arrays beneath the BrainGate artefact name and has set the development of applied BCIs for bodies as its above goal. The BrainGate is based on the Utah Array developed by Dick Normann.

Philip Kennedy founded Neural Signals in 1987 to advance BCIs that would acquiesce paralysed patients to acquaint with the alfresco apple and ascendancy alien devices. As able-bodied as an invasive BCI, the aggregation aswell sells an implant to restore speech. Neural Signals' "Brain Communicator" BCI accessory uses bottle cones absolute microelectrodes coated with proteins to animate the electrodes to bind to neurons.

Although 16 paying patients were advised appliance William Dobelle's eyes BCI, new implants accomplished aural a year of Dobelle's afterlife in 2004. A aggregation controlled by Dobelle, Avery Biomedical Devices, and Stony Brook University are continuing development of the implant, which has not yet accustomed Food and Drug Administration approval for animal article in the United States.58

Ambient, at a TI developers appointment in aboriginal 2008, demonstarted a artefact they accept in development anxiety The Audeo. The Audeo aims to actualize a human–computer interface for advice after the charge of concrete motor ascendancy or accent production. Appliance arresting processing, aphasiac accent can be translated from intercepted acoustic signals.59

Mindball is a product, developed and commercialized by the Swedish copmany Interactive Productline, in which players attempt to ascendancy a ball's movement beyond a table by acceptable added airy and focused.60 Interactive Productline's cold is to advance and advertise calmly barefaced EEG articles that alternation the adeptness to relax and focus.61

Austrian aggregation Guger Technologies,62 g.tec, has been alms Academician Computer Interface systems back 1999. The aggregation provides abject BCI models as development platforms for the analysis association to body upon, including the P300 Speller, Motor Imagery, and mu-rhythm. They commercialized a Steady State Beheld Evoked Potiential BCI band-aid in 2008 with 4 degrees of apparatus control.clarification needed

Spanish aggregation Starlab, has entered this bazaar in 2009 with a wireless 4-channel arrangement alleged Enobio. Designed for analysis purposes the arrangement provides a belvedere for appliance development.63

There are three capital consumer-devices commercial-competitors in this breadth (launch date mentioned in brackets) which accept launched such accessories primarily for gaming- and PC-users:

Neural Impulse Actuator (April, 2008)

Emotiv Systems (December, 2009)

NeuroSky (MindSet – June, 2009; Uncle Milton Force Trainer – Fall 2009, Mattel MindFlex – Summer, 2009)

2010 the world's aboriginal claimed EEG-based spelling arrangement came to the market: intendiX. It works with 8 alive EEG electrodes and uses the P300 assumption to blazon on a keyboard like matrix. Besides autograph a argument the accommodating can aswell use the arrangement to activate an alarm, let the computer allege the accounting text, book out or archetype the argument into an e-mail or to forward commands to alien devices. Recently the aggregation developing intendiX, g-tec, developed alive dry electrodes that plan for P300, SSVEP and motor adumbration based BCI systems to aftermath a new artefact g.SAHARA.

Cell-culture BCIs

Researchers accept congenital accessories to interface with neural beef and absolute neural networks in cultures alfresco animals. As able-bodied as furthering analysis on beastly implantable devices, abstracts on able neural tissue accept focused on architecture analytic networks, amalgam basal computers and manipulating automatic devices. Analysis into techniques for aesthetic and recording from alone neurons developed on semiconductor chips is sometimes referred to as neuroelectronics or neurochips.64

The world's aboriginal Neurochip, developed by Caltech advisers Jerome Pine and Michael Maher

Development of the aboriginal alive neurochip was claimed by a Caltech aggregation led by Jerome Pine and Michael Maher in 1997.65 The Caltech dent had allowance for 16 neurons.

In 2003 a aggregation led by Theodore Berger, at the University of Southern California, started plan on a neurochip advised to action as an bogus or prosthetic hippocampus. The neurochip was advised to action in rat accuracy and was advised as a ancestor for the closing development of higher-brain prosthesis. The hippocampus was called because it is anticipation to be the a lot of ordered and structured allotment of the academician and is the a lot of advised area. Its action is to encode adventures for accumulator as abiding memories abroad in the brain.66

Thomas DeMarse at the University of Florida acclimated a ability of 25,000 neurons taken from a rat's academician to fly a F-22 fighter jet aircraft simulator.67 After collection, the cortical neurons were able in a petri bowl and rapidly began to reconnect themselves to anatomy a active neural network. The beef were abiding over a filigree of 60 electrodes and acclimated to ascendancy the angle and yaw functions of the simulator. The study's focus was on compassionate how the animal academician performs and learns computational tasks at a cellular level.

Ethical considerations

There has not been a active agitation about the ethical implications of BCIs, even admitting there are several commercially accessible systems such as academician pacemakers acclimated to amusement acoustic conditions, and could apparently be acclimated to adapt added behaviours.

Important capacity in the neuroethical agitation are:686970

accepting abreast accord from humans who accept adversity communicating,

risk/benefit analysis,

aggregate albatross of BCI teams (e.g. how to ensure that amenable accumulation decisions can be made),

the after-effects of BCI technology for the superior of activity of patients and their families,

side-effects (e.g. neurofeedback of sensorimotor accent training is appear to affect beddy-bye quality),

claimed albatross and its accessible constraints (e.g. who is amenable for erroneous accomplishments with a neuroprosthesis),

issues apropos personality and personhood and its accessible alteration,

ameliorative applications and their accessible exceedance,

questions of assay belief that appear if avant-garde from beastly assay to appliance in animal subjects,

mind-reading and privacy,

mind-control,

use of the technology in avant-garde claiming techniques by authoritative authorities,

careful accessory and amusing stratification, and

advice to the media.

Emory University neuroscience assistant Michael Crutcher has bidding affair about BCIs, accurately ear and eye implants: "If alone the affluent can allow it, it puts anybody abroad at a disadvantage."71 Clausen assured in 2009 that “BCIs affectation ethical challenges, but these are conceptually agnate to those that bioethicists accept addressed for added realms of therapy”.68 Moreover, he suggests that bioethics is adorable to accord with the issues that appear with BCI technologies. Haselager and colleagues69 acicular out that expectations of BCI ability and amount play a abundant role in ethical assay and the way BCI scientists should access media. Furthermore, accepted protocols can be implemented to ensure ethically complete informed-consent procedures with locked-in patients.

Researchers are able-bodied acquainted that complete ethical guidelines, appropriately chastened activity in media advantage and apprenticeship about BCI systems will be of absolute accent for the civic accepting of this technology. Thus, afresh added accomplishment is fabricated central the BCI association to actualize accord on ethical guidelines for BCI research, development and dissemination.72

BCI-based toys

Recently a amount of companies accept scaled aback medical brand EEG technology (and in one case, NeuroSky, rebuilt the technology from the arena up) to actualize bargain BCIs. This technology has been congenital into toys and gaming devices; some of these toys accept been acutely commercially acknowledged like the NeuroSky and Mattel MindFlex.

In 2006 Sony patented a neural interface arrangement acceptance radio after-effects to affect signals in the neural cortex.73

In 2007 NeuroSky appear the aboriginal affordable customer based EEG forth with the bold NeuroBoy. This was aswell the aboriginal ample calibration EEG accessory to use dry sensor technology.74

In 2008 OCZ Technology developed accessory for use in video amateur relying primarily on electromyography.

In 2008 the Final Fantasy developer Square Enix appear that it was partnering with NeuroSky to actualize a game, Judecca.7576

In 2009 Mattel partnered with NeuroSky to absolution the Mindflex, a bold that acclimated an EEG to beacon a brawl through an obstacle course. By far the best affairs customer based EEG to date.7577

In 2009 Uncle Milton Industries partnered with NeuroSky to absolution the Star Wars Force Trainer, a bold advised to actualize the apparition of possessing the force.7578

In 2009 Emotiv Systems appear the EPOC, a 14 approach EEG device. The EPOC is the aboriginal bartering BCI to use dry sensor technology, which can be abject with a acrid band-aid for a bigger connection.38