On Tuesday night Elon Musk the CO-Founder and CEO of Neuralink for the first time revealed details regarding a project of theirs that will allow people with physical disabilities to control and operate computer or cell phones mentally.
How the Neuralink Will Function?
According to the presentation in Neuralink a series of flexible electrodes compromising of 4-6 micrometer in with will be inserted into the brain of the recipient via a specially designed machine that will auto inject them into motor and stomata sensor region of the brain. A laser injection system will ultimately replace the machine.
Human brain is a complex machine that uses constant neural singling to send and receive information. The sensors implanted will pick up these neural discharges and with the help of a certain device convert them into signals that will allow handicapped or paralyzed people to operate computers freely.
According to Elon Musk, for now, the information transfer takes place through a wire, but the future version of this technology will be wireless the ultimate goal of the project is to generate a state of uniform symbiosis between human and AI.
So far, clinical trials have not been conducted but will hopefully start by the end of 2020 in collaboration with Stanford University.
Neuralink founder Elon Musk is well-known for undertaking such projects that seem true only for fiction. It has not been so long since SpaceX CEO revealed the first private passenger for Moon’s tour. He is undergoing several ventures to explore the potential of outer-space for human life.
Similar Projects In The Past
Previously other organization have undertaken such ambitious projects but failed, or the project didn’t achieve their full potential due to a particular hurdle. The first man to receive such an implant was in 2006 named Matthew Nagle, who used the implant to play pong using his mind. The implant was called the Brain Hate and was designed by brown university
However, the project had certain drawbacks; for example, the system used Utah arrays. These electrodes were inflexible and offered resistance to the brains semisolid structure and may cause damage or a clot in the brain.
What Is So Special About Neuralink
Furthermore, it allows only 128 electrode channels contrary to 3,072 electrodes channels, which are distributed across 96 threads. The flexibility of the threads or electrodes offers no resistance to the brains semisolid structure hence eliminating the chances of brain clotting or structural damage.
There is still a lot that the team needs to do before it launches the final product. Matthew MacDougall, head surgeon at Neuralink while talking to the media said safety is our number one priority, and we want this to be something like Lasik eye surgery. We want to eliminate the patients need for general anesthesia.
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