62-year-old Melbourne man Philip O’Keefe has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) which left him paralyzed but that hasn’t stopped him from sharing his thoughts with the world.
In April 2020, O’Keefe had a Stentrode brain computer interface (BCI) implanted in his brain which was developed by a US company called Synchron. O’Keefe sent a tweet using only his thoughts and the BCI through Synchron CEO Tom Oxley’s twitter which read “no need for keystrokes or voices, I created this tweet just by thinking it #helloworldbci”.
Along with his first tweet, O’Keefe also tweeted about how the technology has changed his life.
“When I first heard about this technology, I knew how much independence it could give back to me,” he said.
“The system is astonishing, it’s like learning to ride a bike – it takes practice, but once you’re rolling, it becomes natural,”
“Now, I just think about where on the computer I want to click, and I can email, bank, shop, and now message the world via Twitter.”
Symptoms of ALS can include weakness of legs and hands, difficulty of speech as well as cognitive changes according to the Mayo Clinic. The purpose of the BCI chip is to be able to give patients with paralysis or diseases like ALS that ability to communicate without using speech or their body.
According to Synchron the endovascular brain implant allows the paralyzed patient to “wirelessly control digital devices through thought and improves functional independence” with the company believing this to be the first time anyone has tweeted through thought and BCI. Synchron CEO Tom Oxley stated in a press release that it was a momentous occasion.
“These fun holiday tweets are actually an important moment for the field of implantable brain computer interfaces,” he said.
“They highlight the connection, hope and freedom that BCIs give to people like Phil who have had so much of their functional independence taken away due to debilitating paralysis.”
Although this may be an achievement in implantable BCI, Syncrhon is not the only company exploring this technology. In 2016, Elon Musk founded Nueralink and has been developing the BCI technology ever since, even implanting a computer chip into a monkey to play video games.
While most BCIs are wired based, Musk’s Nueralink chip which is called “the Link” is Bluetooth based giving paralyzed people the ability to control The Nueralink app as well as any Bluetooth mouse or keyboard. According to the Nueralink website, the Link is so small that “they can’t be inserted by the human hand” and are developing a robotic system that neurosurgeons would be able to use to insert the device.
Musk hopes that his BCI will be used in humans starting in 2022.
