DARPA, the US Military’s ultra-secretive research agency, has unveiled a $65 million dollar plan to plug a human brain directly into a computer and allow them to communicate with each other.
If that sounds like science fiction then we’re here to tell you that it is, but not for long.
The hope is that by allowing humans and computers to communicate it can usher in a new era of people having ‘super senses’ or by allowing soldiers to learn new skills simply by having them ‘downloaded’ into their brain.
DARPA has been working on what is known as a neural interface system for over a decade but in the last few years progress has started to pick up pace.
In January 2016 the organisation unveiled a brand-new program called Neural Engineering System Design (NESD) which would focus specifically on creating an “implantable neural interface able to provide unprecedented signal resolution and data-transfer bandwidth between the human brain and the digital world.”
This new $65m injection will see the money split up and sent to five research organisations, all of whom are working to develop that neural interface.
So how would such an interface work? Well quite simply it would take the electrical signals used by neurons in the brain and then convert them into the ones and zeros that today’s computers use.
If that sounds like science fiction then we’re here to tell you that it is, but not for long.
The hope is that by allowing humans and computers to communicate it can usher in a new era of people having ‘super senses’ or by allowing soldiers to learn new skills simply by having them ‘downloaded’ into their brain.
DARPA has been working on what is known as a neural interface system for over a decade but in the last few years progress has started to pick up pace.
In January 2016 the organisation unveiled a brand-new program called Neural Engineering System Design (NESD) which would focus specifically on creating an “implantable neural interface able to provide unprecedented signal resolution and data-transfer bandwidth between the human brain and the digital world.”
This new $65m injection will see the money split up and sent to five research organisations, all of whom are working to develop that neural interface.
So how would such an interface work? Well quite simply it would take the electrical signals used by neurons in the brain and then convert them into the ones and zeros that today’s computers use.
Phillip Alvelda, the founding NESD Program Manager said: “By increasing the capacity of advanced neural interfaces to engage more than one million neurons in parallel, NESD aims to enable rich two-way communication with the brain.”
If getting a computer to communicate with one million neurons sounds complex, consider the fact that there are 86 billion neurons in the human brain.
One million would still be a huge accomplishment however and would, explains Alvelda, allow us to deliver rich sensory signals directly to the brain.
Computers have advanced to such a level that the brain is already able to communicate with computers, albeit in a more indirect fashion.
If getting a computer to communicate with one million neurons sounds complex, consider the fact that there are 86 billion neurons in the human brain.
One million would still be a huge accomplishment however and would, explains Alvelda, allow us to deliver rich sensory signals directly to the brain.
Computers have advanced to such a level that the brain is already able to communicate with computers, albeit in a more indirect fashion.
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