A team of scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and computer
scientists at Brown University and Harvard Medical School have
created a specialized brain-computer interface. It is called the
BrainGate Neural Interface System. The project has been going on
for more than a decade. It was funded by the National Institutes
of Health and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The scientists
have created an implant that is designed to enable people who
are paralyzed to move a robotic arm and hand by using their
mind. It is quite remarkable! The implant consists of a sensor
chip that is about the size of a baby aspirin. It is implanted
directly onto the motor cortex of a person’s brain. This is the
part of the brain that controls movement. The sensor picks up
signals that are generated by a person’s brain cells while the
person is thinking about moving his or her own arm and hand.
Those signals are sent through a wire to a device that connects
with a computer. The computer has been taught to read the signal
it receives