Using BCI to talk when ALS won't allow you

It's hard to imagine a technology more exciting than BCI, or Brain Computer Interface, which allows a person's electrical impulses inside the brain to control a computer.

We've known we can monitor the electrical signals in the brain for many years, and gaming companies as well as academic researchers have been spending recent years finding ways to lower the cost of the BCI skull cap and other means used to monitor the signals and channel them to a computer.

Some of that research has been reported in the technology press, with demonstrations done by programmers and others who try to connect emotions and even cognitions (thoughts) to computers programs. Computerworld saw such demonstrations at CES last January.

IBM and Emotiv Systems Inc. were showing off ways that industry, not just gamers, could make use of BCI. Neurosky Inc. has demonstrated the value in a range of applications, not just for gaming as well. But one of the most powerful demonstrations I've witnessed was a recent report on 60 Minutes that included a segment showing Scott Mackler, afflicted with ALS, using BCI to communicate.

Mackler can't talk and can't move, except for his eyes. But the technology, developed at New York State's Wadsworth Center, allowed him to interact with a computer that was equipped with an automated voice to read out his thoughts.

Mackler, himself a researcher at University of Pennsylvania, still goes to work in his lab and will apparently continue, one hopes, to make use of the developing technology.

You owe it to yourself to see the story and read more about BCI if you need a pick-me-up. Or check it out if you've ever wondered why you are working in developing new technology or researching new methods that seem years away from rewards.