The First Mind-Reading Computer Just Became a Reality
(USNewsMag.com) – Elon Musk isn’t just making electric cars, shooting rockets into space and purchasing social media platforms. The billionaire’s company Neuralink Corp is also developing brain-computer interfaces. But it looks like another company is beating him in the race toward regulatory approval.
According to Bloomberg, Synchron Inc. enrolled the first patient in a US clinical trial. The company has been developing a brain implant that lets wearers control computers by just using their minds. It is about the size of a paperclip and it’s been named the Stentrode brain implant. The implant translates brain activity into signals that would allow a person to email, shop online, text and perform other activities on an external device. The New York-based company believes it could help people who are paralyzed, like those with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
"Synchron’s device, once implanted, travels to the brain through blood vessels.
After it reaches the brain, the Stentrode translates brain activity into signals designed to allow texting, emailing, shopping or other activities using an external device."https://t.co/od1w9xFw3w
— HumanProgress.org (@HumanProgress) May 5, 2022
The first devices will be implanted in six severely paralyzed people in New York and Pittsburgh. It’s already been tested in Australian patients, but never before in the US. The company believes the implant could be sold as a commercial product aimed at helping patients regain some of their independence.
The Daily Mail reports the clinical trial, called Command, is taking place under the FDA’s first-ever investigational device exemption.
What do you think about this new device? Does it raise any red flags for you?
Copyright 2022, USNewsMag.com
