Delta, Theta, Alpha, Beta, Gamma
The motors of a drone begin to spin, and the slight hum of the motors fills its surroundings. The quadcopter takes off, hovering in midair. As you see it rise, the drone begins to move forward at full speed.
Below it is a seemingly regular pilot, looking up at the object as he sees it fly. You look down to see how he is controlling this drone, but to your surprise he doesn’t have a regular controller. As a matter of fact, his hands are behind his back; he has no controller. He is sitting there, staring at the drone, controlling it completely with his mind.
Interestingly, this isn’t some sort of Star Wars CGI trick — it’s a project a couple of University of Florida students created back in 2015.
In the project, the Ph.D. students used an interesting device which contained 14 electrodes placed on all sides of a user’s head to control the drone in any direction they liked: up, down, forward, backward, left, or right. And they gave this device a funny name: 🧠💻 brain-computer interface 💻🧠.
Enter: BCIs (Brain-Computer Interfaces)
The project I described to you is one of many applications of a new field of neurotechnology called brain-computer interfaces. It might seem like stuff of science fiction, like “having the Force” or some voodoo magic. However, BCIs are currently being extensively tested both inside laboratories and in the real world.
BCI technology allows a human brain and an external device to talk to one another — to exchange signals. It gives humans the ability to directly control machines, without the physical constraints of the body.
BCIs are strictly limited to systems that measure and use signals produced by the central nervous system (CNS) which mainly include your brain and spinal cord. So something like Siri or Alexa is not a BCI. Nevertheless, don’t let “measure and use signals” fool you: BCIs don’t necessarily read your mind. These systems only “enable users to act on the world by using brain signals rather than muscles.”
But Shivam, how do BCIs work??
Ok, let’s start with the basics. Our brains are filled with cells called neurons. It’s estimated that the average human brain has around 86 billion neurons. Each time you think of something, say a phrase, or perform an action, these neurons are hard at work. They use both chemical and electrical signals to transfer information throughout your brain. A bunch of electric signals at one instant is represented as a brain wave which can be either delta, theta, alpha, beta, or gamma.
We can then detect those signals and interpret what they mean by using electroencephalography (EEG) technology. EEG can read signals from the human brain and send them to amplifiers. The amplified signals are then interpreted by a BCI computer program which uses the signals to control a device.
Here’s an informative video that explains brainwaves and how they are specifically read in more detail 👇
Remember how I mentioned EEG technology? Well, this is a non-invasive form of BCI, meaning that you won’t need to stick electrodes in your head. All you need to do is wear a headset which contains numerous electrodes which will read your brain’s electrical signals (brainwaves) to understand what you are thinking. The “recognition” part of BCIs is done through machine learning algorithms that identify matching EEG brain activity, so that the BCI can transmit external commands to control a device (such as a computer cursor, robotic arm or wheelchair).
Applications 🔬
The world of BCIs is extensive, and more research is being conducted in the field now, more than ever. Let’s discuss some of the most enticing applications of BCIs, and the current progress researchers and scientists have had.
Medical 💊
One of the main goal of BCI is to replace or restore useful function to people disabled by neuromuscular disorders such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, cerebral palsy, stroke, or spinal cord injury, or other neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and Huntington’s disease. There are also efforts to cure seizure activity, such as epilepsy.
- Responsive Neurostimulation (RNS)
RNS is a surgery in which a small device called a neurostimulator is placed in the skull, with leads implanted in the brain. It can help to stop epileptic seizures by sending electrical impulses to the part of the brain where the seizure is starting. It works similarly to a pacemaker in the heart. The location of the leads is variable, stimulated up to 2 epileptic foci, and the generator is affixed to the skull.
- Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS)
DBS is quite similar to RNS. It involves implanting electrodes within certain areas of your brain. These electrodes produce electrical impulses that regulate abnormal impulses or affect certain cells and chemicals within the brain. However, as opposed to the variability with RNS, the leads in DBS are placed in the thalamic anterior nuclei and the generator is in the chest, not affixed to the skull. Overall, DBS is more focused for Parkinson’s disease at the moment, and RNS is more focused for seizures, mainly epilepsy.
Assistive Technology 💪
Companies, like Elon Musk’s Neuralink, are try to build a neural implants that can sync up the human brain with AI, enabling humans to control computers, prosthetic limbs, and other machines. Nevertheless, the main application here is BCIs used in neural prosthetics to “[record] signals from neuron populations,[decode] those signals using mathematical modeling algorithms, and [translate] the intended action into physical limb movement.” There have been many advancements in this field by companies like Kernel, BrainCo, and BIOS.
Gaming 🎮
Although BCIs in gaming might seem like a stretch, people like Gabe Newell (co-founder of Valve) have big prospects for the industry. As stated in a recent Verge article:
Newell says that Valve is currently working with OpenBCI headsets to develop open-source software with the aim of making it easier for developers to understand the signals coming from people’s brains. At its most basic, this could allow software to understand whether a player is enjoying a game, and adjust the experience accordingly. For example, games could turn up the difficulty if they sense a player is getting bored. But Newell’s more ambitious ideas involve actually writing signals to people’s brains, rather than just reading them.
Alongside that, according to Andrew Schwartz, a leading neuroscientist at the University of Pittsburgh, the technology is straightforward to use with 2D video games like “Sonic the Hedgehog 2.”
Products of Today
Let’s take a look at some of the consumer BCI products today…
Non-Invasive
Invasive
How will BCIs change our lives?
The world of brain-computer interfaces is not even close to being fully explored. There are, and will always be, possibilities not explored. However, the impact that BCIs will have on the lives of those who are impaired will be tremendous. Assistive technologies such as neural prosthetics can help those with limb loss, diseases like cerebral palsy, and others.
However, let’s look a bit more into the future. Implantable BCIs paired with AI can make daily tasks so much easier on all levels. Communicating with our computers and other machines around us will become commonplace, and things like downloadable memory could become a real possibility.
🔑 Takeaways
- Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) allow humans to control machines without any physical constraints.
- Researchers and scientists looking into BCIs are expanding in a variety of fields, such as curing medical conditions, developing more interactive assistive technologies, and more.
- There are a variety of consumer EEG technologies which can introduce the public to the possibilities of BCIs.
Thank you SO MUCH for reading!
Shivam Syal is a 16 y/o disruptive innovator, computer science enthusiast and emerging entrepreneur. Currently he is interested in Brain Computer Interfaces, Machine Learning, Blockchain, and Quantum Cybersecurity.
Connect with him here 👇
shivamsyal.com | linkedin.com/in/shivamsyal | github.com/shivamsyal
