Speech implant has let a man with ALS produce nearly 2 million words, his team reports in Nature Medicine
Casey Harrell, who has ALS, has communicated nearly 2 million words through a brain implant, his team reported in Nature Medicine. The record is one patient's, and the researchers Science News quotes expect others to follow.
Reality
- Evidence55
- Adoption8
- Hype gap+15
- Incentives40
- Confidence50
Science Corporation has implanted its PRIMA retinal chip in its first Stargardt disease patient, CEO Max Hodak announced at TechCrunch Disrupt. Only one participant's early rehabilitation has been reported so far, so this is a feasibility step for the extension.
Perspective Coverage
3 publishers
- Builder
- Builder 38%
- Operator
- Operator 22%
- Investor
- Investor 40%
Reality
- Evidence30
- Adoption15
- Hype gap+20
- Incentives65
- Confidence70
Bridge Neurotech launched with $13.5 million to build a non-surgical ultrasound brain-computer interface, aimed at people who will not accept a brain implant. The device trades the fast, direct neural signal that lets implant users move robotic arms and type for a slower reading taken from blood flow.
Reality
- Evidence50
- Adoption5
- Hype gap+25
- Incentives70
- Confidence60
Precision Neuroscience raised $250 million at just over a $1 billion valuation, $42.5 million of it from Bill Ackman's Pershing Square and his institute. The other $207.5 million came in undisclosed amounts, so the round names its generalist investors without showing what they paid.
Reality
- Evidence55
- Adoption25
- Hype gap+20
- Incentives70
- Confidence60
A more human-looking hand drove stronger motor cortex firing in two implanted BrainGate participants
BrainGate researchers found motor cortex firing in two people with tetraplegia was strongest for a photorealistic hand and weakest for an abstract cube. The ordering bears on how assistive devices are shaped, though nobody was controlling anything during the recordings.
Reality
- Evidence38
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+35
- Incentives35
- Confidence40
KAIST sorts a user's unspoken correction into two signals a robot can act on
The neural value alignment work with Microsoft Research Asia decodes brain waves to tell an agent whether its goal or its method was wrong. The speed claim comes from simulations.
Reality
- Evidence34
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+33
- Incentives62
- Confidence41
A closed loop inside the magnet: what United Imaging's MRI brain interface can and cannot do
United Imaging and Tianjin University say uMR Shenguan decodes, modulates and measures in one system. The specifications that would let anyone check that are not in the announcement.
Reality
- Evidence20
- Adoption8
- Hype gap+58
- Incentives74
- Confidence33
A $499 body scan as a recruitment funnel for brain implants
Neko Health's consumer scan data would reportedly pre-screen candidates for Neuralink's PRIME trial. The interesting part is not the science, it is what the consent form has to cover.
Reality
- Evidence20
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+58
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence34