Brain-Computer Interface Still Going After 1,000 Days 77
An anonymous reader writes "Remember BrainGate? The implanted system lets people with paralysis control computer cursors and other devices just by thinking about moving them with their hand. A new report shows that it is still going strong in a patient 1,000 days past her implant."
First post (Score:4, Insightful)
Because I didn't have to use my hands.
Re:Bad Summary (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a fair summary, but I probably wouldn't have started with "Remember BrainGate?", because I think a large chunk of the slashdot crowd (myself included) has been conditioned to let out a groan and stop reading the second we see the gate suffix applied to anything. Especially when a word like "remember" is shoved in there, because remember tends to reference an event or person.
"BrainGate, an implanted system lets people with.." might have been better for the slashdot crowd.
It's sad that I don't think anything I've said is... insane. This gate suffix garbage has really gotten that bad!
Quality of life? (Score:5, Insightful)
From the article:
Results across five consecutive days demonstrate that a neural interface system based on an intracortical microelectrode array can provide repeatable, accurate point-and-click control of a computer interface to an individual with tetraplegia 1000 days after implantation of this sensor.
This seems pretty impressive, but what the article does not seem to cover is quality of life issues such devises might impact on. I would imagine the improvement in quality of life to someone with tetraplegia could be huge.
Re:Quality of life? (Score:5, Insightful)
Surely being able to do something as mundane as posting on Slashdot (which this may allow) would raise their level of social interaction a great deal over their baseline, even if it tends to be unsatisfying. Not only that, they could do more like search for ebooks to read, build a playlist of music and start/stop it, or even program a sequencer and synthesizer to play their own music.
Maybe even after reading the right ebooks someone may teach himself to program or do digital art or learn a foreign language and use these skills to find a job that could be done remotely.
There's a lot of things that can be done with just a mouse these days.
It's far from independence and normal interaction, but it's got to be a much bigger set of options than what they've got right now.
On the other hand, it's all just conjecture on my part.