Brain Chip May Help the Blind See
Friday, 16. October 2009, 10:36:56
They can’t extract secret terrorist plots yet, but Utah bioengineers have implanted a brain chip in human test subjects that enables researchers to download brain data onto hard drives. The team working with the chip is hoping to make immediate improvements in the lives of people with epilepsy, paralysis or blindness, but say the chips may one day enable brain-native Internet browsing or most any other function currently possible with a computer.
The Utah Electrode Array’s purpose is analogous to a modem: It relays data from the brain to a computer, and vice-versa. It may soon enable thought control of bionic limbs like Luke Skywalker’s in Star Wars and, further in the future, may help the blind to see.
Neural Engineering Lab supervisor and University of Utah assistant professor Bradley Greger describes the chip as “a platform technology that is going to enable many, many new things.” With a grant from the National Institutes of Health, Greger and dozens of other scientists are pioneering brain-computing technology.
Source: http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/article-9318-brain-chip-may-help-the-blind-see.html
The Utah Electrode Array’s purpose is analogous to a modem: It relays data from the brain to a computer, and vice-versa. It may soon enable thought control of bionic limbs like Luke Skywalker’s in Star Wars and, further in the future, may help the blind to see.
Neural Engineering Lab supervisor and University of Utah assistant professor Bradley Greger describes the chip as “a platform technology that is going to enable many, many new things.” With a grant from the National Institutes of Health, Greger and dozens of other scientists are pioneering brain-computing technology.
Source: http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/article-9318-brain-chip-may-help-the-blind-see.html
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