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Venture Capital Funding for Brain-Computer Interfaces outstrips DARPA dollars
Posted on May 09, 2024A group of 5 implantable brain computer interface (BCI) startups, including Musk’s Neuralink, are starting to pull in hundreds of millions of venture capital dollars. While Neuralink has attracted the…
Read full postBeyond Handwriting: Speculating on what is next for Ctrl Labs' Wristband Neural Interface
Posted on April 02, 2024Ctrl Labs within Meta’s Reality Labs division released a paper about their incredible progress on a generalizable wristband-based generalizable neural interface. The choice of a handwriting demo task…
Read full postOne step closer to a brain-computer interface: Generative AI decodes images and speech from fMRI recordings
Posted on June 03, 2023This post compares two new research papers that use generative AI techniques to ‘read’ images and text from human brain activity patterns. The first paper generates sentences that subjects heard in…
Read full postWrist-worn neural interfaces have come of age: Facebook Reality Labs and Cala Health
Posted on October 06, 2021Neural interfaces may be mainstream before we know it, in very familiar form. Facebook's Reality Labs division is working on a consumer device that senses tiny nerve signals at the wrist to offer…
Read full postGoing Long on the Vagus nerve: Startups Re-discover the Autonomic Neuromodulation Goldmine
Posted on June 04, 2021Electrical stimulation of the Vagus nerve to treat chronic disease has been around for 35 years, with mixed success. Fifteen ventures, as many therapeutic areas, and billions of dollars later, a new…
Read full postChina's Brain-Computer Interface Landscape in 2021: Has the Dragon Woken up to Neurotech?
Posted on April 17, 2021Chinese brain-computer interface research is about a decade behind the US or Europe but is likely to catch up quickly as the government pours funding into the China Brain Project. Local manufacturers…
Read full postHow DARPA drives Brain Machine Interface Research
Posted on November 22, 2020The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency invests millions in brain-computer interface projects every year, effectively driving the BCI research agenda. This post catalogs the various programs…
Read full postOn Neural Dust
Posted on October 25, 2020This post reviews the significant milestones in the development of neural dust and lays out the state of the art in 2020. The neural dust device is 3 millimeters long and 1×1 millimeters in cross…
Read full postClosed-loop brain-computer interfaces
Posted on September 27, 2020All BCI devices record. Only a few of them provide direct feedback to the brain in real-time. This post lists current closed-loop human BCI devices and their applications. X-rays from patients…
Read full postFunding for Brain-Computer Interface Ventures
Posted on August 28, 2020Can following the money tell us about the interface between academic research and venture-funded companies in BCI. Is there a clear boundary at all? What does the 'funding lens' reveal, about who is…
Read full postNeural interfaces for vision: Is there light at the end of the tunnel?
Posted on August 25, 2020Current retinal implants deliver just enough vision to enable the blind to see bright lights, high-contrast edges, and moving objects. Considering their enormous potential, visual prosthetics have…
Read full postWhy Model Systems are Indispensable for BCI Research
Posted on August 18, 2020From neurons in dishes to behaving insects to primates, how do we trade off accessibility and iteration speed against clinical relevance? What model is best suited to which research question? Photo a…
Read full postHow to Build a Neural Interface: Lessons from Cochlear Implants
Posted on August 08, 2020The cochlear implant is a miracle that deserves a place in the history of brain-computer communications, as the first neural interface to restore a human sense through electrical stimulation of…
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