This past week, thought controlled computing made appearances on several world stages. At the 2012 World Science Festival, Adam Smith presented a live demonstration of brain computer interfaces in gaming at the festivals ‘Cool Jobs’ event. The event was a selection of individuals whom had what the festival deemed inspirational and cool jobs in the industry. The event brought together innovators and artists to celebrate the beauty of science with youth. A full video of the event (with the demo at 1:01:10) is here
Mid week, InteraXon was delighted to have had the opportunity to join the SharpBrains Virtual Summit on June 8th. We joined the virtual conference from our homebase in Toronto, and got to hear some leading expert commentary from companies like The Brain Store and NeuroSky. The summit is a curated conference to bring together experts in brain health, and of course areas in the field of neuroscience. This week long conference held virtual panels and events to discuss new neuroscience applications in consumer, casual and workplace settings, as well as market developments.
For our highlights from the first week of June, from across the industry of thought controlled computing, keep reading after the jump!
1// Keio University Reveals a Real-Time Brainwave Meter
This week a team of researchers at Keio University revealed a real-time brainwave meter powered by an EEG headset. The meter can identify, distinguish, measure, and display brainwaves of the user in real time. Emotions like desire, feelings of fatigue or sleepiness, and levels of concentration are used as examples in the research to demonstration how the device measures and captures brain wave data. The team at Keio University is expected to take the results from this research to develop applications which can visualize brainwave frequencies and be applied to other uses in the future.
“Previously, it was said that if you produced a lot of theta waves, you were sleepy, and if you produced a lot of alpha waves, you were relaxed. But with our method, the key point is which frequencies are most intense”
2// A Full-Body Computer Interface
Neurotransmitters are chemicals in the body that communicate and trigger signals between neurons and other cells. In turn, these neurons help to distribute and maintain biological currents running to muscles and organs (including the brain), such as motor movement classifications.
Wired reported that a team at Linköping University has published a paper which is one step closer towards building an interface that would release these neurotransmitters to the needed muscles or organs. The benefits are profound and far reaching for patients with conditions that may cause damage to limbs or affect muscle control, such as Multiple Sclerosis. The process is described in a paper released by both Linkoping University Press and the journal Nature Communications. The paper suggests ways to interface the bodies’ neurons with an ion gate; primarily this interface would act as a storage for neurotransmitters when specific muscles or organs signal they are in need of manipulating the neuron circuitry
You can read an abstract of the paper here [PDF download link]
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The InteraXon news roundup is published weekly, every Sunday night, to recap trends and breaking news in the world of brain computer interfaces and thought controlled computing. Do you have a story you’d like to submit or share? Contact us at info@interaxon.ca (subject line “News Story”) or leave a comment here.
