The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 13th that iPhone manufacturer Apple is introducing a technology that can control its devices such as iPhones with human brain waves.
In collaboration with Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) startup Synchron, which has developed brain implants that convert into device control signals, Apple has begun early work on technology that makes it easy to use Apple devices as brain waves for the handicapped.
Smartphones introduce touch and use user behavior as input, but implants are technologies that allow users to manipulate devices with only brain signals without physical movement.
To this end, Apple is developing a new technology standard to connect synchron’s implant device called Stentrode to devices such as iPhones.
The stent rod is a stent-type implant inserted into the vein above the cerebral motor cortex and has an electrode that reads brain waves.
It is used to read and interpret the user’s brain waves and select icons on the screen. However, synchronization technology is still in its infancy, making it difficult to move or manipulate the cursor as quickly as a mouse, and only screen navigation and icon selection are possible.
The new standard, which Apple will unveil later this year, is expected to address these limitations with the design of a BCI-only interface, WSJ predicted.
Earlier in 2014, Apple also developed a technology standard that connects to Bluetooth so that hearing aid users can hear iPhone sounds better.
Apple is foreshadowing a fierce future competition with Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk in the field of device manipulation technology using brain waves.
Neuralink, Musk’s brain neuroscience startup, has implanted chips into the brains of quadriplegic patients, enabling them to communicate through devices.
Recently, a case of a third quadriplegic patient who underwent a Neuralink chip transplant was revealed.
JENNIFER KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
