Instead of cutting out a piece of the skull to install a brain-computer interface like Neuralink, Synchron sends electrodes through the jugular vein to the motor cortex. Now the technology has allowed an ALS patient to control Apple’s Vision Pro hands-free.
The term brain-computer interfaces (BCI) says it all. These are devices designed to place electrodes next to specific areas of the brain to convert electrical activity into signals that can be used to interact with computers and other devices.
As such, they have great potential to transform the lives of people suffering from spinal injuries, motor neuron disorders, etc. But to do so, they need to get inside the patient’s head – which can involve invasive surgery to remove part of the skull. Synchron’s technology takes a different approach.
The company’s Stentrode begins its journey with a “minimally invasive endovascular procedure” that inserts the BCI into the body via the jugular vein. From there, it’s guided through the brain’s blood vessels until it reaches the motor cortex. It’s then expanded to place a cluster of electrodes right next to the target brain area.
“Once implanted, it is designed to sense and wirelessly transmit motor input from the brain, allowing severely paralyzed people to regain the ability to control their personal devices hands-free with point-and-click functionality,” the company said.
Towards the end of 2021, an Australian patient with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) became the first person to send a text message via Twitter (now X) and has continued to use the system to reconnect with family and colleagues via email. Following its successful Series C funding last year, we spoke to the company’s Professor Nicholas Opie about the technology – giving more details about the Stentrode technology, how patients are learning to use it and more.
Now a buyer in the US has become the first person in the world to use the Apple Vision Pro AR/VR headset, which was released last June with a combination of eye tracking and his mind. Users of the system typically interface with the spatial computer using their eyes, voice and hands to select items and control the show. But the 64-year-old ALS patient’s loss of upper limb function means such use is impossible.
With Synchron BCI, the patient was able to play the card game Solitaire, watch Apple TV, and send text messages using input controlled directly by his thoughts. You can watch a video summary of the achievement by clicking on the Businesswire link below.
“BCI is a platform for reconnecting people who have suffered injury or illness to the fast-moving consumer technology environment,” said Tom Oxley, founder and CEO of Synchron. “Vision Pro is a powerful system, but it relies on hand gestures to control the user interface. We send control signals directly from the brain to eliminate the need for hand gestures. We are moving toward a new Bluetooth standard for Human Computer Interactions that does not require touch or speech. This is a critical unmet need for millions of people with paralysis.”
Source: Sync via Businesswire