-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,40194,00.html Click Here: <A HREF="http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,40194,00.html"> Hey Computer, Read My Mind</A> ----- Hey Computer, Read My Mind by Nicholas Morehead 2:00 a.m. Nov. 15, 2000 PST ARLINGTON, Virginia -- Any serious Star Trek buff remembers the famous "Spock's Brain" episode, in which the apparently primitive denizens of Sigma Draconis put the Vulcan's prodigious mind to work as an environmental control computer. When Dr. McCoy realizes the technically advanced surgery the natives have successfully performed, he exclaims aloud, "That's not possible!" "But it is," says Melody Moore, a research scientist at Georgia State University. "Not in that capacity yet, but we're beginning to understand brain activity," she said. "We can listen in on it. We can intercept it. We can interpret it." Moore was speaking on Tuesday not to a crowd of bespectacled Trekkies, but to the Association for Computing Machinery's Conference on Assistive Technologies . The event is designed to explore how computers can help disabled or handicapped people. Moore and her colleagues are attempting a feat that's nothing if not ambitious: controlling a computer through brain signals. The key technology involved is called a neurotrophic electrode, which is about the size of the head of a ballpoint pen, and is designed to be directly inserted into a brain so it can interface with neurons. It's connected to a tiny amplifier and transmitter, which are inserted closer to the surface of the skin, just under the scalp. Also present is a small power source that allows wireless transmission of the signals to a nearby computer. Together the system allows a person such as a quadriplegic to perform on a computer basic functions that were heretofore impossible. The PCs receiving the neural-signal data sport custom software as well as modified off-the-shelf components for signal-data acquisition, analysis, device control, communication and training aids for the patients. For example, the researchers modified the "parmouse" parallel mouse driver to translate neural pulses in the brain signals into basic movements of a cursor in order to click on icons. When that same technology is used with a voice synthesizer, mute people can communicate audible words merely by thinking. Earlier research allowed cursor control by electrodes placed on the scalp instead of implants. "Business is booming," said Allan Bergman, CEO of the Brain Injury Association. "As technology is making things smaller, faster and more personal ... I think the opportunity for technology to create an environment for self-reliability and self-control for people with disabilities has never been higher." He said that one in five U.S. residents has a so-called functional disability, which means they require some sort of help performing daily activities. "I guess if I was working in the fields of technology, I see lots of work here, lots of work," Bergman said. Part of that work includes erasing the stigma attached to using certain technologies as "assisting technologies," according to Gregg Vanderheiden of the Trace R&D Center at the University of Wisconsin. He predicts that technological developments in this area will trickle down to the general public. "Just like the typewriter, the long-playing record, the Jacuzzi, and other technologies were first developed for people with disabilities and later drafted into use by the general population, some of these new assistive technologies hold promise for addressing the needs of individuals without disabilities," Vanderheiden said. Copyright � 2000 Wired Digital Inc., a Lycos Network site. 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