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ALS Patients Use a Brain Implant To Type 6 Words Per Minute

Posted by timothy on from the just-don't-think-control-w-too-much dept.

the_newsbeagle writes: With electrodes implanted in their neural tissue and a new brain-computer interface, two paralyzed people with ALS used their thoughts to control a computer cursor with unprecedented accuracy and speed. They showed off their skills by using a predictive text-entering program to type sentences, achieving a rate of 6 words per minute. While paralyzed people can type faster using other assistive technologies that are already on the market, like eye-gaze trackers and air-puff controllers, a brain implant could be the only option for paralyzed people who can't reliably control their eyes or mouth muscles.

26 comments

  1. Soon! by KGIII · · Score: 3

    Soon I will be able to jack into the system with a nice planted wireless nub on the top of my head and an ethernet jack in my neck. I actually eagerly await this day and will subject myself to anyone qualified to test it out on me. I'd love to be jacked right into the internet. It would be awesome.

    --
    "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    1. Re:Soon! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

    2. Re:Soon! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I will have to have a serious case of writer's block for you to beat me, while on my keyboard, at 6 words/minute! However, I do see your point about the internet, two handed fapping.

    3. Re:Soon! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Beware of the Etherkiller.

    4. Re:Soon! by thedonger · · Score: 1

      Soon I will be able to jack into the system with a nice planted wireless nub on the top of my head and an ethernet jack in my neck. I actually eagerly await this day and will subject myself to anyone qualified to test it out on me. I'd love to be jacked right into the internet. It would be awesome.

      Right? All that talk of "jackin' in" for the last 30 years, and all we have managed is jackin' off.

      And while we're at it, can the internet be changed to a visualization of flying through blinking skyscrapers at night?

      --
      Help fight poverty: Punch a poor person.
    5. Re:Soon! by jellomizer · · Score: 2

      Upgrades are a real pain.
      It is one thing to get these technology to help replace natural skills that you have loss or normally need, to function in society. However volunteer cybernetics to super enhance your ability for vanity reasons, really shouldn't be allowed, because say that wireless implant has a security glitch, or becomes outdated in 5 years, then you will need to have it surgically removed and a new one added. That is a lot of Trama for vanity technology.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    6. Re:Soon! by KGIII · · Score: 1

      If I know the potential risks and opt to take them then I'm not sure why you'd feel compelled (or entitled) to tell me that I am disallowed. I don't tell you what you can do with your body so long as it doesn't harm my body and, frankly, can afford such and any health complications that come along with it.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    7. Re:Soon! by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      I am not stating that you legally can't but the fact you probably shouldn't.
      It would be difficult for a company to make a profit of designing luxury items, that will require major trauma for installation. So it may be hard for you to get such a system. It may go in the realm of extreme body manipulation, split tongue, horn implants... However requiring brain surgery is kida hardcore for most people.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    8. Re:Soon! by KGIII · · Score: 1

      That's true but I still want it. I'd probably only go through with it if it were reasonably safe - it seems like they could "patch" in at the optical nerves (for example) and that we might then develop the neural pathways on our own though I am probably too "plastic" for that. Or is not plastic enough? I am not a brain surgeon.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  2. I do not think that word means what you th... by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 0

    used their thoughts to control a computer cursor with unprecedented accuracy and speed... while paralyzed people can type faster using other assistive technologies

    So, very much... precedented, then?

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    1. Re: I do not think that word means what you th... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      used their thoughts to control a computer cursor with unprecedented accuracy and speed... while paralyzed people can type faster using other assistive technologies

      So, very much... precedented, then?

      no

  3. Hawking will ne happy by aglider · · Score: 0

    As well as the science world

    --
    Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
  4. 6 words per minute? by rossdee · · Score: 1

    Stephen Hawking seems to do better than that.

    1. Re:6 words per minute? by Flavianoep · · Score: 1

      Not really, he must do about 2 words per minute nowadays (source ), but I think he may perform better with a brain implant.

      --
      Linux is for people who don't mind RTFM.
    2. Re:6 words per minute? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That is, if he still has a brain. I suspect he is a bionic vegetable, exploited to push propaganda into the mainstream with his impeccable charm and award winning smile.

  5. Hawking is pwned by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's a lot faster than what he can type.

  6. ALS by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 1

    Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, A.K.A. Lou Gehrig's disease.

    1. Re: ALS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fuck off karma whore.

      I thought it meant American sign language.

  7. My dad had ALS by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 2

    This was 20+ years ago... he communicated using a chin-driven switch hooked up to a computer. I'm guessing he could do maybe 12-15 words per minute with the predictive software available at the time. HOWEVER getting the mechanical switch set up just right so he could use it was often a time-consuming chore, since he didn't have very much range of motion (or strength, for that matter) in his jaw.

    This sort of thing would be a Godsend to people like him, where their minds continue to work but their bodies don't.

    Of course, the elephant in the room is whether it makes sense to spend so many healthcare dollars on someone with an incurable, fatal disease. People with ALS get to the point where they need round-the-clock nursing care, a ventilator to help them breathe and an NG tube to feed them. on the other hand, no one blinks an eye at the annual drug costs for, say, AIDS patients; while the costs for ALS care are largely related to salaries of their caregivers.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re:My dad had ALS by sconeu · · Score: 1

      My late wife had an eyegaze computer for the last few months before ALS took her.

      I can confirm what paent said about setting up. Aligning the damned thing so that it registered properly was a pain in the ass.

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    2. Re:My dad had ALS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My dad died from ALS 4 years ago. The neurologist he was seeing was happy to suggest all kinds of different surgeries on his back/spine that would cure his symptoms (before his ALS was actually diagnosed) that his insurance would cover. But as soon as he was diagnosed with ALS, those millions of dollars for various surgeries dried up. He required 24/7 care at the end while his doctors were pushing to have him taken (by force) out of hospice and put in the ICU so they could keep him alive on a ventilator for a few more months at a few hundred grand a day or so. When he finally died in hospice (or rather, was put out of his misery because it takes a while to die there at the end and hospice facilities know when the end is near), the doctors pushed for an investigation. It was then that we learned that they spent probably $50k or so trying to get him taken out of family care and be institutionalized. There were legal orders working their way through the system. Note that at this time he was already in the 'mostly unconscious' stage of CO2 poisoning...saving someone's life isn't a big concern at that point, it was all so they and the hospital could earn some money.

      His main doctor left town soon after, and his neurologist retired. That might have had something to do with me releasing all that info to the media.

    3. Re:My dad had ALS by fulldecent · · Score: 1

      If you released it to the media, why post as AC?

      --

      -- I was raised on the command line, bitch

  8. Johnny Mnemonic! by KatchooNJ · · Score: 1

    Just a matter of time before we can input data into the brain by "jacking in", as well.

    "I know Kung-Fu."

    --
    "Never give up, for that is just the time and place when the tide will change." -Harriet Beecher Stowe ^_^
  9. Considering I type over 90 wpm... by DrPeper · · Score: 1

    This must be horrifyingly maddening for them.

  10. Even 1 wpm can be a godsend when your stuck at 0 by DumbSwede · · Score: 1

    While I might be able to do 70-80 when concentrating and transcribing, I find I poke along at 30-40 while composing. 6 doesn't sound all that awful for someone so deprived of other sensations and abilities. I think you largely view these things by the alternatives when you're in these situations.

    Many would see this as the end of frustration -- not the beginning.

    --
    Letter To Iran