Synchron Neurotecnology company presented the latest version of its Cerebro-Computer interface (BCI)which uses technology from Nvidia and of the Apple Vision Pro to allow people with paralysis to control digital and physical environments with thought.
Control
In a demonstration video at the conference NVIDIA GTC held this week in San José, California, Synchron showed how his system allows one of its participants in the test, Rodney Gorham, who suffers paralysis, control several devices of his house. From his sunny Melbourne lounge, Australia, Gorham can play music from an intelligent speaker, adjust the lighting, light a fan, activate an automatic feeder for pets and start up a robotic vacuum cleaner.
Gorham has lost the use of his voice and much of his body because he suffers Amyotrophic lateral sclerosisor ela. This degenerative disease weakens the muscles over time and ends up causing paralysis. In 2020 he was implemented by the Synchron brain-computer interface. At first he could use his BCI to type on a computer, an iPhone and an iPad. Now, with the Apple Vision Pro, you can look at several devices from your home and see an overflowable drop -down menu in your physical environment. With your BCI, you can choose between several actions, such as adjusting the temperature of your air conditioning apparatus just by thinking about it.
BCI decodes the signals of brain activity and translate them into orders into an output device. To improve the speed and precision of decoding, Synchron uses Holoscan de Nvidiaan artificial intelligence sensor processing platform. A faster and more precise decoding would reduce the time between the user’s movement and the one that takes the BCI system to execute an order, in addition to increasing the accuracy of control.
In recent years, the enthusiasm for the BCI has been increasing as Neuralink, Elon Musk, and other companies have been marketing what was once a clumsy technology used in academic laboratories to make it practical assistance devices. Although they are still in an experimental phase, the implantable devices They promise to return to people with paralysis some of the lost functions.
How is Synchron’s BCI?
But most BCI’s demonstrations have been of specific capabilities: playing a video game, moving a robotic arm or driving a drone, for example. Synchron’s goal is to create a BCI system capable of making a wide range of tasks in the domestic environment without problems. “It works in real time, in a real environment, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, making predictions where the context really matters,” explains Tom Oxley, CEO of Synchron, Wired in an exclusive interview.
To do this, Synchron’s BCI will have to train with many brain data. Within the framework of their collaboration with Nvidia, the two companies are developing what Oxley has called “cognitive”, the combination of large amounts of brain data with advanced computing to create more intuitive BCI systems. Oxley considers that cognitive AI is the following phase of the development of AI after agricultural AI, which can act and make decisions independently, and physical AI, the integration of AI with robots and other physical systems.
“What we have seen to do Rodney is a beginning, but there are many more interactions that can start bringing here,” says David Niewolny, senior director of Health Care and Medical Technology at Nvidia. With cognitive AI, he says, the mind will be the “final user interface.”
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