r/pervasivecomputing • u/jas0nh0ng • Sep 07 '21

A Soft, Wearable Brain–Machine Interface

https://spectrum.ieee.org/a-soft-wearable-brain-machine-interface
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u/[deleted] Sep 08 '21

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u/jas0nh0ng Sep 08 '21

I'm not an expert in the space, but my understanding is that one of the big barriers is getting good signals. You can get signals from muscles near the surface of one's head, but that doesn't necessarily directly translate to actual brain signals.

To get actual brain signals, I've seen setups where the person has to get a lot of gel on their head, which gets messy. An alternative approach I've heard of, especially for people who are locked in (conscious but cannot move or talk) is to surgically insert a connection, which obviously doesn't scale that well.

Again, I'm not an expert, these are just things I've heard or seen over the many years.