Posted on 01/20/2016 6:21:47 PM PST by Swordmaker
A new DARPA program aims to develop an implantable neural interface able to provide unprecedented signal resolution and data-transfer bandwidth between the human brain and the digital world. The interface would serve as a translator, converting between the electrochemical language used by neurons in the brain and the ones and zeros that constitute the language of information technology. The goal is to achieve this communications link in a biocompatible device no larger than one cubic centimeter in size, roughly the volume of two nickels stacked back to back.
The program, Neural Engineering System Design (NESD), stands to dramatically enhance research capabilities in neurotechnology and provide a foundation for new therapies.
"Today's best brain-computer interface systems are like two supercomputers trying to talk to each other using an old 300-baud modem," said Phillip Alvelda, the NESD program manager, in a statement. "Imagine what will become possible when we upgrade our tools to really open the channel between the human brain and modern electronics."
Among the program's potential applications are devices that could compensate for deficits in sight or hearing by feeding digital auditory or visual information into the brain at a resolution and experiential quality far higher than is possible with current technology.
Neural interfaces currently approved for human use squeeze a tremendous amount of information through just 100 channels, with each channel aggregating signals from tens of thousands of neurons at a time. The result is noisy and imprecise. In contrast, the NESD program aims to develop systems that can communicate clearly and individually with any of up to one million neurons in a given region of the brain.
Achieving the program's ambitious goals and ensuring that the envisioned devices will have the potential to be practical outside of a research setting will require integrated breakthroughs across numerous disciplines including neuroscience, synthetic biology, low-power electronics, photonics, medical device packaging and manufacturing, systems engineering, and clinical testing. In addition to the program's hardware challenges, NESD researchers will be required to develop advanced mathematical and neuro-computation techniques to first transcode high-definition sensory information between electronic and cortical neuron representations and then compress and represent those data with minimal loss of fidelity and functionality.
To accelerate that integrative process, the NESD program aims to recruit a diverse roster of leading industry stakeholders willing to offer state-of-the-art prototyping and manufacturing services and intellectual property to NESD researchers on a pre-competitive basis. In later phases of the program, these partners could help transition the resulting technologies into research and commercial application spaces.
Source: U.S. Department of Defense
Ping for all tech related lists
The latest Apple/Mac/iOS Pings can be found by searching Keyword "ApplePingList" on FreeRepublic's Search.
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me
It will be interesting to see if one’s thinking alGorerithyms and personal data bases can be make to operate independent of the wetware off into the indefinate future.
I hope it won’t be mandatory!
I’d like to volunteer.
“Vote D! Vote D. Vote D!”
I will name my brain-pal, “a-hole”.
What happens when you get some nasty malware?
And what do you do when somebody out there roots your head?
“Ghost in the Shell”
I figure a number of us Windows folks are interested in this sort of stuff...
Thanks to Swordmaker for the ping!!
I’ve got a permanent stack overflow from the honeydew list as it is.
5.56mm
WE ARE THE BORG
YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED
RESISTANCE IS FUTILE
Don't even think about it...?
It was a woman who invented the swapfile.
It will inevitably be used for porn.
And COBOL.
Could give a new meaning to the "Blue Screen of death. . . "
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.