2024-08-29 01:23:35
Scientists and companies are racing to develop capable brain-machine interfaces and make implants. While most of the media attention is focused on Elon Musk’s Neuralink, a small startup from Switzerland seems to be ahead of the game.
Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) have created the smallest brain chip, the area of which is only 8 square millimeters. The device, called MiBMI, is only slightly larger than a grain of rice, NewAtlas reports.
In fact, the implant consists of two chips. It uses very little energy and is minimally invasive.
“MiBMI allows us to convert complex neural activity into readable text with high accuracy and low energy consumption,” said Mahsa Shoaran, who leads EPFL’s Integrated Neurotechnology Laboratory. “This advance brings us closer to practical, implantable solutions that can significantly improve communication abilities for people with severe motor disabilities.”
The miniature brain chip is able to read brain signals that are formed when someone imagines drawing a letter and outputs those signals as text, dir writes.
Unlike the Neuralink device, which was implanted in a human patient earlier this year, the new MiBMI chip has not yet been tested live. However, it was fed real-time neural recordings collected from previous tests of the brain interface and achieved a 91% accuracy rate in converting neural activity into actual text.
MiBMI can currently decode 31 different characters, which the researchers say is a record for such integrated systems. They think they can eventually get the system to decode up to 100 different characters.
The research that led to the creation of the new MiBMI is described in an article published in the latest issue of the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.