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There ’s been a mountain of plug total out of Silicon Valley in late month about technology that can meld the human genius with machines . But how will this technical school avail lodge , and which companies are lead the charge ?
Tesla andSpaceXCEOElon Muskmade waves in March when he announce his late speculation , Neuralink , which will design so - shout out brain - figurer interface ( BCIs ) . ab initio , the BCIs will be used for aesculapian research , but the ultimate end is to prevent humans from becoming obsolete , by enable people to merge with artificial intelligence .
While these may seem like lofty goals , Musk is not the only one who ’s try out to lend humans closer to simple machine . Here are five company that have double down on hacking the brain . [ Super - Intelligent Machines : 7 Robotic Futures ]
Neuralink
According to Musk , the principal roadblock to human - machine cooperation is communication " bandwidth . "
This means that using a touch screen door or a keyboard is a slow means to communicate with a calculator . Musk ’s new venture aims to create a unmediated " high - bandwidth " link between the human brain and machines .
What that organisation would actually look like is not only exonerated yet . Words like"neural lacing " and " neuronic dust"have been bandied about , but all that has really been revealed is a business concern example . Neuralink has been registered as a medical research company , and Musk said the firm will create a merchandise to help people with severe mentality injuries within four years .
This will consist the substructure for acquire BCIs for healthy hoi polloi , thus enable human to transmit by " consensual telepathy , " which could be quick within five years , Musk say . Some scientists , peculiarly those in the neuroscience community of interests , areskeptical of Musk ’s ambitious plans .
Not to be outdone , just a few hebdomad after Musk plunge Neuralink , Facebook announced that it is working on a way tolet people type with their mentation .
The finish is to work up a machine that would admit people to " typewrite " up to 100 Christian Bible per instant , allot to Regina Dugan , foreland of the company ’s tightlipped Building 8 research group . Dugan also suggested that the gimmick could work as a " brain mouse " for augmented world ( AR ) , remove the need to tail manus movements to ascertain cursors , The Verge reported .
Facebook has also been light on the contingent of its design . The company has said it does not cogitate implant are practicable in the long term , so it ’s focusing on developing some form of cap that could track wit bodily function noninvasively , most likely using optical imaging .
But this technology does n’t exist yet . So , in the meantime , Facebook say that , within two years , it design to create a prototype medical implant that would pave the way for future devices .
Kernel
Musk was n’t the first affluent entrepreneur to dive into the developing neurotechnology space . Last August , Bryan Johnson , founder of the online payments troupe Braintree , invested $ 100 million into the startup call Kernel .
The company ’s initial goal was to develop a chip that could record memories and redeliver them to the brain , ground on enquiry by Theodore Berger , a biomedical engineer and neuroscientist at the University of Southern California . But six months later , the two divide ways due to the foresighted timescales involve , reported MIT Technology Review , and the company is now focus on technology standardised to Neuralink .
Kernel plans to build up a conciliatory platform for transcription and excite neurons , with the goal of treating diseases such as slump and Alzheimer ’s . But like Musk , Johnson is not afraid to talk about the candidate of using the technology to augment human power and merge with machines .
" There ’s this vast potential to co - evolve with our technology,“Johnson evidence CNBC .
Emotiv
Unlike some other companies in this burgeon industry , Emotiv actually makes product — electroencephalography headset that record brain activity noninvasively .
The technology is low fidelity than the sort of neuronal implants other companies , such as Neuralink , are considering , but it is more established . The company has a inquiry - mark gimmick , called EPOC+ , which sell for $ 799 . But it also produces a more consumer - point headset , called Insight , which retails for $ 299 .
Emotiv also make a variety of software products that allow users to figure their brain activeness in 3-D ; measure their genius fittingness ; and even control drones , robots and video games , report The Daily Dot . The company was pick out to be part of the Disney Accelerator computer programme in 2015 , with the aim ofcreating a " wearable for the brainiac . "
DARPA
Although it ’s not a fellowship itself , the U.S. military ’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announce a $ 60 million program last year todevelop an implantable neural interfacein collaboration with a consortium of private companies .
The project , which is a part of former President Barack Obama ’s BRAIN Initiative , is ambitious . DARPA wants a machine that can record 1 million nerve cell simultaneously and stimulate at least 100,000 neuron in the head . DARPA also require the twist to be wireless , the size of a nickel and quick in four years , which is an fantastically belligerent deadline , consort to MIT Technology Review .
likely software let in compensating for sight or hearing problems because the machine could fertilise digital auditory or visual data directly into the brain . The exact technical approach is unclear at this phase , but the project has the ponderousness of some major engineering science titan , such as Qualcomm , behind it , Quartz reported .
Original article onLive Science .
