Plans for even tinier brain chip to be implanted into human heads unveiled – with size to rival Elon Musk’s Neuralink
ELON Musk isn’t the only one looking to develop chips to be implanted into human brains, as a Swiss University unveiled plans to make one even smaller than the one from the Neuralink founder.
This week researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, also known as Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), revealed that they developed a “next-generation miniaturized brain-machine interface.”
The researchers have said that this BMI will be fully capable of communication between the brain and text outputs on a computer via the mini silicon brain chips.
It will specifically target those with severe motor impairments, once again giving them the ability and control for text communication.
For example, the researchers said the chip could greatly benefit those suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or spinal cord injuries.
Specifically, this inference processes neural signals that are generated when someone is thinking of writing letters, words, or sentences.
Using electrodes implanted in the brain, the neural activity is recorded and then processed through the chip in real-time.
This then produces an output of digital text on a connected screen.
Measuring only 8mm2 (square millimeters), the entire interface is made of two chips that record and process every request.
At this size, it is drastically smaller than the one developed by Musk’s Neuralink – which is around the size of a small coin.
The BMI was developed at Mahsa Shoaran’s Integrated Neurotechnologies Laboratory at EPFL’s IEM and Neuro X institutes.
Shoaran has praised the development of brain chips, saying it can turn neural activity from someone’s brain “into readable text with high accuracy and low power consumption.”
“This advancement brings us closer to practical, implantable solutions that can significantly enhance communication abilities for individuals with severe motor impairments,” Shoaran said in a statement.
As the chip is currently being developed, it can only decode up to around 31 different characters – however, the researchers have said they are confident this should increase to 100 characters.
They are currently looking to test the chip with different applications including handwriting recognition, speech decoding, and movement control.
The goal is to create an extremely versatile brain chip that can be tailored to individuals facing different neurological disorders.
Right now, the developing chip has a 192-channel neural recording system that uses a 512-channel neural decoder.
The chip has yet to be integrated into a fully working BMI, the researchers said, however, they have found 91% accuracy for converting handwriting activity into text.
Timeline Elon Musk's Neuralink
FOUNDED in 2016, Neuralink is Elon Musk's most ambitious project that aims to erase the biological barrier between human brain and big tech.
Musk’s company initially hired a bunch of experts in areas such as neuroscience, biochemistry, and robotics to develop a chip that could be implanted into the skull.
In April 2017, Neuralink announced that it was aiming to make devices to treat serious brain diseases in the short term, with the eventual goal of human enhancement.
In April 2021, Neuralink shocked the world with a video of a Macaque, known as Pager, with one of the chips playing Pong.
The animal was seen using a joystick manually and then operating it with only its mind via a wireless connection with the chip.
Neuralink reportedly implanted Bluetooth-enabled chips into the brains of several monkeys to see if they could communicate with computers through a small receiver.
In November 2023, the company that it was looking for quadriplegics under 40 years old to take part in the human trials.
Neuralink got FDA clearance for its first human clinical trials in May, with the company initially wanting to test on 10 humans, though that number has since changed to six.
The brain chip has 1,000 electrodes and hopes to help people wirelessly perform computer functions simply by thinking via a “think-and-click” mechanism.
On Monday, announced the first Neuralink brain chip has been successfully implanted in the human skull – marking a successful human trial.
The Tesla boss said that the first Neuralink product is called Telepathy.
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The development of the tiny brain chip comes roughly eight months after Musk announced the first human brain had been implanted with a chip manufactured by Neuralink.
Similarly, this chip – called Telepathy – was primarily designed to “restore autonomy” to those with mobility diseases such as ALS, the company has said.
Noland Arbaugh received the chip in January and was later announced as the first person to be implanted in March.
He later demonstrated its capabilities in a video shared online, in which he was able to use the chop to move a mouse cursor with his brain.
In early August, Musk announced that a second person had been implanted with the brain chip.
“I don’t want to jinx it but it seems to have gone extremely well with the second implant,” he told podcast host Lex Fridman.
“There’s a lot of signal, a lot of electrodes. It’s working very well.”
He revealed Neuralink plans to implant at least eight other patients this year.