Brain Computer Interface

Australian startup Synchron, backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, looks set to beat Elon Musk's Neuralink to market with a safe, reliable brain-computer interface that any hospital can quickly install – without cutting a hole in your skull.

Several years after Elon Musk's "aspirational" timeframe, Neuralink has announced it's received FDA approval for the first human trials of its brain-computer interface. But it's worth noting that another company has already done more than 50 implants.

Elon Musk's startup Neuralink has shown off the latest version of its brain-machine interface, which a monkey uses to wirelessly play Pong with its mind, marking another step forward for the ambitious company.

Neuroscience startup Neuralink is on a mission to develop next-generation brain implants that hook machines up to the human mind, and on Friday founder Elon Musk offered a look at the team’s progress.

Scientists have successfully bridged the gap between organic and artificial. A team has created biohybrid synapses that let living cells communicate with electronic systems, not with electrical signals but with neurotransmitters like dopamine.

Researchers in Europe and the UK have managed to connect biological and artificial neurons together. The biological neurons were grown in Italy, sent signals through an artificial synapse in the UK to communicate with artificial neurons in Zurich.

Not a lot has been revealed since Elon Musk announced his Neuralink venture two years ago, but the company today emerged from the shadows to share its progress so far, along with its plans for the future, which involve implanting its first chips in human as early next year. ​​

No longer a fringe sci-fi concept, we’re seeing big money being committed to the development of brain-computer interfaces. DARPA has now announced an investment of up to US$65 million across six projects as part of its new Neural Engineering System Design (NESD) program.​

​In the past, “mind reading” systems have been able to guess a number, but deeper thoughts have been beyond the technology’s reach. Now, a team from Carnegie Mellon University has developed a way to accurately read more complex concepts from a brain scan, and even piece together entire sentences.

​The human brain remains an enigma, but neuroscience is beginning to unravel its secrets. To help us navigate the murky waters of peering into the human mind, researchers from Switzerland have proposed four new human rights relating to limitations on how the brain should be read or manipulated.

Researchers in Japan say that they've broken new ground with machines that can read out minds, developing a technology that can recognize Japanese words and also guess the single-digit number on a subject's mind with 90 percent accuracy.

The Brain Drone Race takes the already impressive technology of thought-controlled drone piloting and gives it an edge, imploring pensive pilots to will their drones across the finish line ahead of the competition.​