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Wired with BrainGate Implants Emotiv Systems’ president and co-founder Tan Le told Brain-computer interface technology is also being _me in an interview’ that, in the future, brain-computer utilised in a project known as BrainGate™. In the late interface technology will have far broader implications 990s, Cyberkinetics developed the BrainGate implant, a —_"...in the way that you surf the Internet, in the way that BCI that could be attached permanently to a patient's — you experience content and interactive content on your brain. In 2004, Matthew Nagle, a 26-year-old _ TV, in the way that you experience your environment in quadriplegic man, became the first person to receive the the home, with your appliances, all the way through to BrainGate implant. It was placed on the surface of his = medical and health care applications where you can brain and included an external device on his skull that = monitor your health". could be connected to a computer. When he was Tan Le further explained: "At the moment, if you look plugged in, Matthew could play video games using his at the way that we interact with machines, it's very brain as the controller. He could move a computer __ limited, it's very one directional: you give a command cursor around a screen and manipulate a robotic arm. to a machine or computer and it does that task for you. In his 2009 book Wired for Thought, BrainGate chairman Even if you give it a multitude of commands, it's still effrey M. Stibel outlined how BrainGate might be used _ very directive, but when you look at communication in the future: "At roughly one-third the size of a penny, between people on the other hand, it's far more our implantable device directly attaches to neurons in interesting because we take into account so much more he motor cortex of the brain. It than is explicitly expressed: we uses one hundred electrodes observe facial expressions, we roughly the width of a human can intuit emotions through our air to record brain activity The Emotiv EPOC enables dialogue with each other. across a small number of You walk home one day and neurons. Although BrainGate players to control games your partner says ‘Hey, why are requires brain surgery, the you so happy?’ or ‘Wha performance is like nothing using only their mind, and happened at work today? You before seen once he device is it is set to revolutionise dont seem to be in such a good implanted, people are able to . . iterally turn thoughts into the gaming world. They can see that from jus observing you, without you having to say anything, and this is the realm that doesn't exist a action... “As with any great innovation, he lines of science and science iction are being blurred. There is all for machines and the way now a real possibility of downloading ‘memory _ that we interact with machines today. implants’ or retrieving information wirelessly from the "And so, one of the things at Emotiv, our vision for the nternet. Recall that the Google founders envisioned a —_ next generation of interaction between humans and uture with 'the entirety of the world's information as | computers is that it will evolve beyond the limits o just one of our thoughts’. We may be getting a bit conscious inputs, and this whole new realm of tota ahead of ourselves, but that future may become a reality © communication will play a part where machines and with BrainGate. computing applications will start to have an insight into "This technology has the potential to be revolutionary how you experience information, how you experience or those who are severely disabled. It will enable content, and will be able to dynamically presen bionics, restore speech, and give disabled people information and change information to really tailor unimaginable access to a world that the able-bodied __ itself to you.” ake for granted. How will BrainGate change the world If technology-enabled telepathy were ever to become or the rest of us? | can't say, but it is fun to imagine."' a reality, Tan Le believes it would develop as an extension of the virtual worlds, such as Second Life, Computer Games and Virtual Worlds at exist today: "I think the Internet is a way for While BCI technology is still being developed for breaking down barriers to connecting and interacting medical purposes, the gaming world has already —_ with people, and having a device like this where you produced its first such device. In 2008, the EPOC ave a much better way of being able to show the way headset was unveiled at a Game Developers Conference at you feel, express yourself far more naturally in San Francisco. The headset, which was developed by rough an avatar-based environment, that allows you Emotiv Systems, is based on electroencephalography o have a better insight into people's perceptions, (EEG) and uses a set of sensors to tune into the brain's experiences, and allows you to relate, even through an electric signals. The Emotiv EPOC enables players to —_avatar-type environment. control games using only their mind, and it is set to "There's always an issue of privacy associated with revolutionise the gaming world. hings like this. How much information are we players to control games using only their mind, and it is set to revolutionise Computer Games and Virtual Worlds While BCI technology is still being developed for medical purposes, the gaming world has already produced its first such device. In 2008, the EPOC headset was unveiled at a Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. The headset, which was developed by Emotiv Systems, is based on electroencephalography (EEG) and uses a set of sensors to tune into the brain's electric signals. The Emotiv EPOC enables players to control games using only their mind, and it is set to revolutionise the gaming world. 36 * NEXUS The Emotiv EPOC enables the gaming world. FEBRUARY - MARCH 2011 www.nexusmagazine.com