A motor neurone disease patient — Philip O’Keefe — has become the first person to send a tweet to the world using only direct thought, with the help of a microchip implant that picked up his brain signals.
O’Keefe is a 62-year-old man from Australia with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and which has disabled his upper limbs to function, BBN Times reported.
It is reported that a California-based computer company Synchron’s stentrode brain-computer interface has had him as their first patient to get the implant or in other words, a microchip in his body that analyses his brain signals and helps carry out commands.
In these past few days, by accessing the stentrode brain-computer interface (BCI), O’Keefe successfully turned his direct thought to text.
Synchron interface has created the interface, by which patients can carry out tasks on a computer just by using their mind.
Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) acquire brain signals, analyse them, and translate them into commands that are relayed to output devices that carry out desired actions.
According to the publication, actions like texting, emailing and shopping online can be performed when brain signals are sent through a telemetry unit to a small computer taped to the patient’s chest, which interprets what actions the individual wants to perform on the nearby PC.
His goal was to share his experience of regaining independence with the world and offer inspiration for the future.
He had the ambition to share his experience of winning back his independence worldwide and to inspire people for the future.
The successful human trials come at a time when many companies are working tirelessly to develop the first brain chip – specifically Elon Musk’s Neuralink — which has only demonstrated its device in a pig.
