Submitted by: Submitted by armi
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Category: Science and Technology
Date Submitted: 04/10/2016 09:24 AM
What is BCI?
A BCI is a device that enables communication and control without movement. For severely disabled users who cannot speak or use keyboards, mice, or other conventional interfaces, BCIs may be the only feasible communication system.
A Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) is a technology which allows a human to control a computer, peripheral, or other electronic device with thought.
• It does so by using electrodes to detect electric signals in the brain which are sent to a computer.
• The computer then translates these electric signals into data which is used to control a computer or a device linked to a computer.
As the power of modern computers grows alongside our understanding of the human brain, we move ever closer to making some pretty spectacular science fiction into reality. Imagine transmitting signals directly to someone's brain that would allow them to see, hear or feel specific sensory inputs. Consider the potential to manipulate computers or machinery with nothing more than a thought. It isn't about convenience -- for severely disabled people, development of a brain-computer interface (BCI) could be the most important technological breakthrough in decades. In this article, we'll learn all about how BCIs work, their limitations and where they could be headed in the future.
The Electric Brain
The reason a BCI works at all is because of the way our brains function. Our brains are filled withneurons, individual nerve cells connected to one another by dendrites and axons. Every time we think, move, feel or remember something, our neurons are at work. That work is carried out by small electric signals that zip from neuron to neuron as fast as 250 mph [source: Walker]. The signals are generated by differences in electric potential carried by ions on the membrane of each neuron.
Although the paths the signals take are insulated by something called myelin, some of the electric signal escapes. Scientists can detect those signals, interpret what...