A few calendar week ago , we write about a tiny micro - bot design to beinjected into a patient ’s eyeand controlled via magnet — a speck - sized eye sawbones . This hebdomad , a group of Berkeley researchers published a study positing a similar conception , except the ‘ bots are inside your learning ability . And they ’re the size of dust corpuscle . It ’s call neuronal dust . Of naturally .
Published on July 8,Neural Dust : An Ultrasonic , Low Power Solution for Chronic Brain - Machine Interfacesis the research equivalent of a think piece . But as opine pieces go , it ’s pretty compelling .
It assesses the plausibleness of a brain - auto interface composed of three parts : First , 1000 of bug - sized sensor client ( the “ neuronic detritus ” ) that find signals within your grey matter — specifically , within your cortex . secondly , an ultrasound transceiver establish between your cranium and skin — the thing that monitors the dust . The molecule would be powered piezoelectrically , imply that they would transmute sound waves from the sonography transceiver into electrical signals . Finally , a large lymph node on the airfoil of your head supplies the battery power , data - processing , and the ability to transmit data to a nearby receiver .
Scientists have been experimenting with Einstein - embedded sensors for 10 . But the idea of a whole fleet of micro - sensors that can be inject ( or snorted ! ) inside the ol’ brain loge is a new development . In one way , it ’s ominous , hint at the musical theme of a kind of surveillance engineering so tiny , you would n’t even be aware of it . But that ’s an extreme version of how neural dust could be used . It could also provide an interface for the handicapped to interact with the world , or a monitoring organisation for neurology patients — a step towards a in truth “ inconspicuous ” brain - computer interface .
The concept of the mastermind - estimator interface has , technically , been around since the invention of an EEG machine , but it took off in the seventies when University of Washington School of Medicine investigator surcharge imp up to a biofeedback m that lease the hierarch insure a robotic weapon system with their thoughts . The basic gist of the technology is this : every time a neuron flame , a tiny routine of electricity escapes from the otherwise well - insulated pathway it ’s traveling . Those leaked signals are what scientist can detect from outside your cranium — and they ’ve gotten fair good at decoding those signal . That ’s how technologies likeNeuroSkyand other headband- or cap - found sensors play .
But many scientists reckon of cap ( and even Glass ) as a bridgework engineering — a weigh - post along the way to being able to “ call up your light on . ” The self-aggrandising technical trouble digest in the direction of a neuro - sense interface is that cranial sensors are imprecise , mainly due to your boneheaded skull . talk to Nick Bilton about the future of BCI , neuroscientist John Donoghue had thefollowing to say :
The current brain technologies are like trying to take heed to a conversation in a football game stadium from a blimp . To really be able to understand what is going on with the brain today you need to surgically implant an array of sensors into the brain .
So the giving challenge to BCI right now is whittling down the size of that array so that it does n’t permanently damage the brain . An US Army of microbe - sized sensors that , together , could transmit and receive data at much high resolution . In other parole , neural dust . [ Neural Dust : An Ultrasonic , Low Power Solution for Chronic Brain - Machine InterfacesviaMIT ]
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