This week InteraXon pulled a hat trick, with 3 speaking appearances in Ontario and Quebec: Girl Geeks Toronto, Start Up Festival in Montreal, and at a pre-university program series with the University of Toronto! On Monday, Ariel and InteraXon’s own Sina MacKay went to Girl Geeks Toronto to talk about ways of interacting with content using thought controlled technologies. After that, Ariel headed to Montreal for the annual Start Up Festival. The event offers over 1000 young entrepreneurs a chance to meet, network, and seek mentors with business professionals. Ariel had an especially notable conversation with an individual who lived in the same dorm at Mark Zuckerberg but “decided to finish university rather than become the 6th Facebook founder”. On Friday, Sina had the opportunity to speak at the University of Toronto in a pre-university program to the Faculty of Applied Sciences and Engineering.
1// USF Creates BCI That Helps To Restore Damaged Cells
A team of researchers, lead by Dr. Stephen Saddow at the University of South Florida, have announced a breakthrough working with silicon carbide. Using this material, USF scientists have built a brain machine interface that will take over for damaged brain cells. In cases like stroke or brain trauma, this interface would allow a patient to continue day-to-day without experiencing the debilitating side affects of their injury.
Along with patenting the process, the team at USF has received research grants from the United States government to further their research.
Sound a bit futuristic and far-fetched? Well, here’s what the scientists have to say about it
2// Hands Free Building
Digital fabrication is common across a variety of industries. Incorporating sensor –based technologies and human computer interfacing to the design process of a building is a new method companies and media labs are starting to recognize.
Germany-based IDEAbuilder was featured in WIRED this week with a video demonstrating the company’s new digital fabrication software. So what? The software is a virtual simulation program that allows you to build an eco-friendly home, but designed completely hands free. IDEAbuilder is currently working to combine human computer interfacing technology with energy performance building standards. The example provided to the media this week is of a sensor-based building simulation program that leads the user, step by step, through a library of building options.
3// If You Could Read My Mind
Recognizing that thought controlled computing has the potential for good, there is a lot of media coverage that reports exactly the opposite. Since our roundup covers the gamut, we write about such press releases here too. We don’t endorse all applications shared here, but it’s important to provide you – the reader – transparency and agency when making informed choices about this technology.
Veritas Scientific is developing an EEG cap with tiny electrodes in the underside of the fabric, to help discern between different electrical signals and associated images in the brains cognitive networks. News outlets like The Huffington Post, and IEEE Spectrum reported this week that Veritas Scientific has acknowledged the potential government applications of this research in various military and wartime programs. For example, spikes in the frequency of specific brain signals will associate with the memory of specific images being presented on a screen:
“The idea behind the device is that certain electrical patterns in the brain are associated with recognizing faces or objects, so the technology could be used to determine if someone does or does not recognize something. When a screen the device puts in front of a user’s eyes flashes images, it will be able to tell if the person remembers them based on spikes in brain activity.” (Huffington Post)
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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.
