SCIENTIFIC EDUCATIONAL CENTER science idea

Scientists from the US state of California have created a technology that allows people to write text messages with the power of thought. They implanted several chips in a person's head that read the activity of his brain and convert it into handwritten text on the screen. It is believed that this technology will return the paralyzed people the opportunity to communicate with their relatives and the world around them in general. In fact, this technology is no longer new, but previously, the subjects could only type about 40 characters per minute, while the average typing speed on the keyboard during this time is 190 characters. The new version of the technology has almost doubled this figure, and in the future, researchers intend to make printing words with the power of thought a lightning-fast process. Let's see how it all works — as always, as clear as possible and without complicated terms.

Each movement of a person is accompanied by the activity of different parts of his brain. For example, if you raise your hand right now, you know that your motor cortex, cerebellum, and several other parts of the brain are activated. The motor cortex is responsible for controlling and executing movements, and the cerebellum plays a major role in maintaining balance and muscle tone. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that all other parts of the brain continue to work when you raise your hand, because you are breathing, looking at the text and thinking about something else in the background. Every second, countless processes occur in the brain, and they do not stop for a lifetime.

Activities in the brain transmit commands to our muscles to move. Unfortunately, after serious injuries, the connection between the brain (brain or spinal cord) and the muscles in some people is cut off and they become paralyzed. In most cases, they are unable to move, but sometimes they can't even speak. To bring such patients back into touch with the outside world, scientists have long been trying to create a technology to connect their brains to a computer. Ideally, they want a person to be able to voice their thoughts to themselves, and the computer to announce it through the speakers, or at least to portray it on the display.

But scientists from Stanford University, California, are also making progress. They implanted two small chips with hundreds of electrodes into the brain of a 65-year-old volunteer to read the activity of his neurons. Scientists already know which parts of the brain work when the hands move, or at least think about these movements, so the subject could already type words by moving the cursor and pressing the keys of the virtual keyboard. But this method of printing allows you to write only 40 characters per minute, instead of 190.

Recently, scientists were able to speed up the technology by visualizing handwritten letters. In fact, the person is required to slowly imagine how he circles the characters with a pen or pencil. This approach allowed us to increase the printing speed to 90 characters per minute. This is a very good result, given that 65-year-olds usually type on a smartphone at an average of 115 characters per minute. In the future, the author of the scientific work Frank Willett (Frank Willett) plans to test the technology on other volunteers. In theory, they can develop something like a mental sign language that will allow paralyzed people to write messages with the power of their mind as quickly as a normal person on a smartphone.

Ideally, scientists want to create a technology that will be able to convert oral speech spoken in the head into text. That is, the ideal system in their opinion should voice thoughts in real time. But, according to Frank Willett, it is very difficult to accurately decipher oral speech because of the huge number of words used by people. To create such a technology, you will have to find out exactly which areas of the brain are activated when imagining each word, when they are connected in meaning, and so on. Most likely, in the next 10 years, we will not be able to see such a technology.

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