Science fiction has long imagined a world where our brains interact with machines to restore and augment our abilities ¡ª think of the neural implants that connected to Geordi La Forge¡¯s visor in Star Trek or allowed Alex Murphy to be reborn as cyborg law enforcer in RoboCop.
In the real world, researchers have been working for decades on so-called brain-computer interfaces to help people who suffer from paralysis, blindness, hearing loss, and more, regain function. Some individuals have used these devices to control a computer cursor with their minds; others have managed to move a robotic arm or transcribe some of their thoughts into text.
The technology is still nascent and the number of people who have received implants is only in the hundreds. Just a few companies have received regulatory approval to progress beyond clinical trials to commercial use ¡ª and even that¡¯s for limited applications. But the industry could be reaching an inflection point thanks to rapid advances in hardware and artificial intelligence models that can decode neural signals.
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