Ever imagined about controlling
your beloved electronic gadgets just by thinking?
Life would
have become so simpler that way. No need to waste your precious energy to do
your tasks physically.... Here comes the glass of water resting on that far
table (maybe that was telekinesis). But, what about gaming? You would love to
move your avatar just by your mind, right?
Until a few
decades ago, this belonged to the dream world of Science Fiction. But not now
......
BMI a
computer-based system designed to collect, analyze and translate
brain signals into commands that can be executed on behalf of a person is
the technology you must know about. Generally, the input is the electrical
activity of brain collected as electroencephalography (EEG)
readings.
BMI
mainly consists of three components
1. First is a
signal acquisition device, mainly electrodes with a signal amplifier.
2. The second
part is a computer used for the feature extraction – the
specific brain waves generated by the intention of a person to make
an action are recorded and analyzed.
3. Finally,
the system needs an output that can be a moving cursor on a screen, or a robotic
arm.
History
Humans have
reached Moon, Mt. Everest and where not but Brains were never understood
completely. Though our great scientists finally thought of working on this
technology of BCI in
the 19th Century when our friend Hans Berger discovered
the electrical activity of brain. Later, research started at
the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) under a grant from
the National Science Foundation, which followed by a contract
from DARPA. The papers published after this research also mark the
first appearance of the expression brain–computer interface in
scientific literature.
Types
BMI techniques
can be divided in two major groups: EEG-based and
non-EEG-based systems.
EEG-Based
Systems :
The
EEG-based systems rely on collecting the electrical activity of
the brain generated at postsynaptic membranes. In other words, the
activity measurements can be collected from the scalp using electrodes which is
an easy and safe technique. EEG-based BMIs can be used to control a device such
as a robotic arm, wheelchair or a cursor on a computer screen.
Electrocorticography
is a more invasive technique where electrodes are placed between the brain
and the protective layers allowing for collection of cortical activity and
resulting in a good signal resolution with reasonably low clinical risk during
surgery.
Non-EEG-Based Systems :
The non-EEG
based systems do not only rely on the brain waves but also use heart
rates, facial expression, pupils size and so on to decode a mind state of a
subject.
Applications
· When the
brain suffers damage due to stroke or a traumatic accident, some of its
motor capabilities can be lost. Using BMI, some research teams have proved that
it is possible to reduce the time and effort invested in such re-learning to
achieve better results.
· One
promising application of the technique is the decoding and restoration of
speech using only imagined speech. If it works, a disabled patient will be able
to speak using a synthesized voice.
· Restoration
of motor control in paralyzed patients
· Neuro-gaming is
one application where non EEG parameters are used to adjust the player’s
experience of a computer game by harmonizing the game music or scenario with
the player’s mood. Using neuro-gaming, a team of researchers and medical
doctors was able to dramatically improve the motor results of children affected
by early childhood movement disorders.
Drawbacks
Being a
brand new field it is much obvious that the disadvantages or the limitations of
the BCI technology far outweigh its Applications, some of which are listed
below:
· Issues of
safety and the long-term stability of the recording electrodes used in invasive
BCI systems remain to be resolved satisfactorily.
· Demand on
the user's attention causes Fatigue.
· Potential
costs are too high.
· BCI
machines could be attacked, so privacy issues.
· EEG-based
BMI machines have the major disadvantage of not gathering some important
signals, as these signals are collected outside of brain and have to
penetrate the skull and different protecting layers of the brain.
After Thought
BMI is
still a young field of science. Nonetheless, it is achieving increasingly
impressive results. BMI can surely offer the ways of treating disabling
diseases and conditions but it can also be the source of valuable knowledge
about the brain circuits and the complex electrical/motor activity
relationship. And as our understanding of brain work
improves, brain-machine interface techniques may offer some more
surprising and useful applications in the future. Because in the end there are
no limits to the research which could be done regarding this mysterious part
called Brain
Congratulations!,
you have just gained some knowledge.
Craving
for more?
Check
out the links given below.
References
Good work Om! Your father must be very proud of you!
ReplyDelete(Sameer Joshi)