Fed II Star - March 19, 2006

REAL LIFE NEWS: THE COMPUTER BRAIN INTERFACE

Science fiction stories and movies have long had brain interfaces that allow people to talk to computers just by thinking at them, and in the real world scientists have been working towards this for some time. Now a new system developed by researchers in Berlin shows just how it might work.

The system was displayed at the CeBiT trade show in Germany last week. The user has 128 electrodes fixed to his scalp to pick up signals from the brain, and a software program translates the thoughts into cursor movements by picking out specific instructions from the mass of information produced by the brain.

Right now it remains impractical for general use - leaving aside the cumbersome electrodes, it takes 5 to 10 minutes to write a sentence. But this is bound to improve and in so doing it will allow people with severe disabilities to communicate with the outside world, giving the paralyzed a voice.