https://spectrum.ieee.org/synchron-bci
INTRO: For more than half a year, six people have been going about their lives with sensors implanted in blood vessels in their brains that enable them to communicate directly with their computers. The participants, who are all severely paralyzed, are taking part in a study that could change their lives and mark a turning point in brain-computer interface (BCI) technology. In 2024, they’ll find out if the tech will continue on the path to the clinic.
Until now, only about 50 humans have ever had BCIs implanted in their brains. And only a handful of those people have been able to leave the laboratory to use them in the real world, since most BCI implants involve wires protruding from the head. The new study is the largest human trial of a fully implantable, at-home BCI system.
And no, the maker of this device isn’t Elon Musk’s Neuralink. It’s a company called Synchron, and it is quietly leading the race to bring a BCI implant to market.
Synchron’s Stentrode is inserted through the jugular vein and snaked up to a blood vessel over the motor cortex. Synchron
“Synchron is the very first to commercialize the concept of BCI [implants] in a meaningful way, and they’re paving the way for the whole field,” says Nick Ramsey, a clinical neuroscientist at University Medical Center Utrecht, in the Netherlands, who is not involved in the development of Synchron’s device. It “might very well be on the market for a while before any [other] devices are competing with it,” he says.
If Synchron’s system works, it will provide an invaluable communication method to people with severe paralysis... (MORE - details)
INTRO: For more than half a year, six people have been going about their lives with sensors implanted in blood vessels in their brains that enable them to communicate directly with their computers. The participants, who are all severely paralyzed, are taking part in a study that could change their lives and mark a turning point in brain-computer interface (BCI) technology. In 2024, they’ll find out if the tech will continue on the path to the clinic.
Until now, only about 50 humans have ever had BCIs implanted in their brains. And only a handful of those people have been able to leave the laboratory to use them in the real world, since most BCI implants involve wires protruding from the head. The new study is the largest human trial of a fully implantable, at-home BCI system.
And no, the maker of this device isn’t Elon Musk’s Neuralink. It’s a company called Synchron, and it is quietly leading the race to bring a BCI implant to market.
Synchron’s Stentrode is inserted through the jugular vein and snaked up to a blood vessel over the motor cortex. Synchron
“Synchron is the very first to commercialize the concept of BCI [implants] in a meaningful way, and they’re paving the way for the whole field,” says Nick Ramsey, a clinical neuroscientist at University Medical Center Utrecht, in the Netherlands, who is not involved in the development of Synchron’s device. It “might very well be on the market for a while before any [other] devices are competing with it,” he says.
If Synchron’s system works, it will provide an invaluable communication method to people with severe paralysis... (MORE - details)