Getting Ready To Read The Mind

Although nascent, industry reports point to a rising confluence of technology entering the fray of brain-computer interface in the country

- VERNIKA AWAL

In September this year, Neuralink, the private brain research startup backed by Elon Musk, announced that it is accepting applications for human clinical trials of its brain interface technology. Put simply, Neuralink's technology uses a chip implanted into a person's brain to then scan the brain for signs of deep neural anomalies, and drive small-quantum electrical impulses through areas of the brain as required. Through scanning via electrodes placed on a person's head, Artificial Intelligence, AI algorithms that have studied brains for hundreds of hours will offer suggestions on how and where these impulses are to be driven.

While all of this sounds like science fiction, work on brain-computer interfaces has escalated in India, too. Media reports highlighted a few Indian entities that are working on this nascent tech sector, thereby bringing niche, core sophisticated tech offerings closer to reality than where they stand today.

WHAT DO BRAIN COMPUTERS DO?