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DARPA looks to implant computer to interface directly with human brain
Mac Daily News ^ | January 20, 2016 | U.S. Department of Defense

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


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Technical
KEYWORDS: applepinglist; madscientists; windowspinglist
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How do they plan on de-mobilizing soldiers so equipped? Is there a plan to remove these implants post enlistment? Brain surgery on mustering out? Are the chips self-destructing on honorable discharge (or do they "discharge" on their own ala Mission Impossible briefing tapes when no longer required?)
1 posted on 01/20/2016 6:21:47 PM PST by Swordmaker
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To: dayglored; ThunderSleeps; ShadowAce; ~Kim4VRWC's~; 1234; Abundy; Action-America; acoulterfan; ...
The shape of military equipment to come -- implantable neural interfaced soldiers and military computer systems. Be afraid, be very afraid. -- PING!

Ping for all tech related lists


Apple and other tech
Ping!

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

2 posted on 01/20/2016 6:26:23 PM PST by Swordmaker (This tag line is a Microsoft insult free zone... but if the insults to Mac users continue....)
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To: Swordmaker

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.


3 posted on 01/20/2016 6:26:28 PM PST by Paladin2
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To: Swordmaker

I hope it won’t be mandatory!


4 posted on 01/20/2016 6:27:27 PM PST by Dalberg-Acton
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To: Swordmaker

I’d like to volunteer.


5 posted on 01/20/2016 6:29:06 PM PST by Norm Lenhart (Existential Cage Theory - An idea whose time has come)
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To: Swordmaker

“Vote D! Vote D. Vote D!”


6 posted on 01/20/2016 6:29:56 PM PST by faithhopecharity (Diff tween D's and R's is that the thatD's -allow the poor to be corrupt, too. (O. Levant)
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To: Swordmaker

I will name my brain-pal, “a-hole”.


7 posted on 01/20/2016 6:29:56 PM PST by ziravan (Buck the Establishment.)
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To: Swordmaker

What happens when you get some nasty malware?

And what do you do when somebody out there roots your head?


8 posted on 01/20/2016 6:36:16 PM PST by Riley (The Fourth Estate is the Fifth Column.)
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To: All

“Ghost in the Shell”


9 posted on 01/20/2016 6:42:25 PM PST by ak267
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To: Swordmaker; Abby4116; afraidfortherepublic; aft_lizard; AF_Blue; amigatec; AppyPappy; arnoldc1; ...
IMPLANTS?!? Not Windows, not any OS, but all computers and droids alert ... PING!

You can find all the Windows Ping list threads with FR search: just search on keyword "windowspinglist".

I figure a number of us Windows folks are interested in this sort of stuff...

Thanks to Swordmaker for the ping!!

10 posted on 01/20/2016 6:43:25 PM PST by dayglored ("Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.")
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To: dayglored

I’ve got a permanent stack overflow from the honeydew list as it is.


11 posted on 01/20/2016 6:46:29 PM PST by tacticalogic ("Oh bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: Swordmaker
I hate to be a pessimist, but this could turn out really bad.

5.56mm

12 posted on 01/20/2016 6:49:19 PM PST by M Kehoe
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To: Swordmaker
Like other technologies, this can be a double edged sword. There is the potential for tremendous good that can come out of this.
But knowing the criminals in government, there will be a push to figure out how to make this technology control people. I propose that those making the mere suggestion of pushing the technology that way be subject immediately to the punishments suitable for a capital offense.
13 posted on 01/20/2016 6:49:58 PM PST by Tench_Coxe (For every Allende, there is a Pinochet)
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To: Swordmaker

WE ARE THE BORG
YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED
RESISTANCE IS FUTILE


14 posted on 01/20/2016 6:54:30 PM PST by Fred Hayek (The Democratic Party is now the operational arm of the CPUSA)
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To: Riley
What happens when you get some nasty malware?

Don't even think about it...?

15 posted on 01/20/2016 7:04:44 PM PST by no-s (when democracy is displaced by tyranny, the armed citizen still gets to vote...)
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To: tacticalogic
> I've got a permanent stack overflow from the honeydew list as it is.

It was a woman who invented the swapfile.

16 posted on 01/20/2016 7:05:27 PM PST by dayglored ("Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.")
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To: Swordmaker

It will inevitably be used for porn.


17 posted on 01/20/2016 7:05:53 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: dayglored
It was a woman who invented the swapfile.

And COBOL.

18 posted on 01/20/2016 7:09:29 PM PST by tacticalogic ("Oh bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: tacticalogic

19 posted on 01/20/2016 7:12:48 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: dayglored
IMPLANTS?!? Not Windows

Could give a new meaning to the "Blue Screen of death. . . "

20 posted on 01/20/2016 7:57:07 PM PST by Swordmaker (This tag line is a Microsoft insult free zone... but if the insults to Mac users continue....)
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