Latest news with #Synchron
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Elon Musk's Neuralink is getting more competition
A brain-computer interface (BCI), a fusion of man and machine, has sparked human imagination since the Industrial Revolution. This week, the small field of BCI developers — which includes Elon Musk's Neuralink — was joined by Texan company Paradromics, who successfully installed its Connexus BCI in a patient undergoing epilepsy resection surgery at the University of Michigan. The Connexus BCI, which is smaller than a dime, uses AI to translate brain signals at the neuron level into physical movement, including communication, for people with severe motor impairments due to ALS, strokes, or spinal cord injuries. After three years of preclinical trials in sheep, Paradromics said that this human trial 'demonstrated Connexus can be safely implanted, record electrical brain signals, and be removed intact in less than 20 minutes, using surgical techniques familiar to neurosurgeons worldwide.' It requires further approval at the clinical level before it can be commercialized. The Texan company is the primary U.S. competitor of Neuralink, which completed three BCI surgeries in 2024. 'We are now a clinical-stage company,' said Paradromics CEO Matt Angle, who co-founded the company ten years ago. He added that the company plans 'several' similar surgeries in 2025. Meanwhile, Chinese state-owned NeuCyber NeuroTech plans to implant its brain chip in 13 people by the end of the year, they announced in April. Other BCI competitors include Synchron, backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, and Precision Neuroscience, founded by former Neuralink employees. Only Neuralink and Paradromics have BCIs that connect to brain tissue; Synchron's enters via a blood vessel, and Precision Neuroscience's sits on top of the brain. Proximity to individual neurons, as Paradromics' Connexus has, is considered key for high-quality, high-resolution signals that aid in speech in particular. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
The Star
20-05-2025
- Business
- The Star
Apple's thought-detection tech could change life for people with disabilities
The Brooklyn, New York-based bioelectronics startup Synchron has been working with Apple to add thought-control features to Apple's systems, The Wall Street Journal reports. — Reuters You might think of Apple as the iPhone company, or the Mac company, or even the iPod company if you're old-school. But among the many identities the California-based tech giant has sported over the years, one important one has persisted, and is actually at the core of a lot of other Apple technology: accessibility. After all, remember when Apple shook up the entire hearing aid industry by making its AirPod headphones into high-power, cheap audio aids? Now Apple is working toward incorporating even more disability-friendly innovations into its flagship iPhone product by reportedly embracing a truly sci-fi-esque technology – implanted brain electrodes that will let disabled users control what happens on their device by thought alone. Apple is pushing to develop a new standard for this amazing, empowering tech. The Brooklyn, New York-based bioelectronics startup Synchron has been working with Apple to add thought-control features to Apple's systems, The Wall Street Journal reports. Apple has helped introduce the venerable mouse, computer trackpads, and finally, with iPhones, full multitouch control interfaces to the public over the years. Now the new system – if it wins approval and comes to market – won't actually need to see a user make specific movements, use voice commands, or physically interact with the device. Instead, the system works out what a user's intentions are via decoded brain signals. These are detected by electrodes inserted via a patient's artery and then threaded up into the skull so they sit right next to key parts of the brain – specifically the motor cortex. This means they're useful for people with disabilities that limit their movement. The WSJ reported on how one particular patient, Mark Jackson, an early tester of Synchron's Stentrode implant, was able to control his iPhone, his iPad, and even his augmented reality Vision Pro headset because of a connection between the implant and Apple's systems. Jackson, who has ALS, noted that these are early days for the tech, so it's much slower right now than using an interface like a mouse, but it's reportedly successful enough that he could control a virtual reality experience that let him feel like he was on a mountain in the Swiss Alps. The key part of Apple's involvement is that until now some brain-implant innovations have tried to directly mimic a user moving and clicking a mouse – just like how a person without a disability would control their device. Essentially that approach represents a limited set of options, such as up, down, left, right, and click. But Apple's reportedly working on a new standard for brain-computer interfaces, set to be released this year, will allow people to do much more than this limited type of interaction allows. The standard will be useable by other developers. Synchron's interface is different from rival systems like Elon Musk's Neuralink, the Journal explained. Synchron's system isn't implanted directly into the brain tissue, and has just 16 electrodes; the amount of brain data it gathers is low. The Neuralink system relies on thin strings of sensors embedded deeply into a users' brain, and has over a thousand electrodes, thus gathering much more data. Musk has touted the system as being transformative for people with paralysis or other disabilities – and it was so successful with its first patient that that person was able to play computer games using his mind alone to control his PC. But Musk has also said one day Neuralink systems could give everyone 'superpowers' like being able to control robot limbs using thought power. Apple's partnership with Synchron is another step toward giving people with paralysis or other limb impairments control over their environment. The Journal explains that investment bank Morgan Stanley believes the first commercial approval for these devices (so they can be used outside of strictly-controlled medical experiments) could come as soon as 2030. By 2030 we may expect companies like Neuralink and Synchron will make even more progress in developing their brain-sensor technology. So if all goes to plan, and Apple and other device makers embrace the new brain interface standard, in just five years time people suffering with movement-limiting disabilities or injuries will be able to demonstrate sophisticated control over their digital devices using thought alone. This tech could have the power to dramatically change people's lives. – Inc./Tribune News Service
Hindustan Times
18-05-2025
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Mind-controlled devices are already here - and 2025 could be the year they go mainstream
In the next year, the number of people with brain-computer interfaces – devices that connect the brain to technology – is expected to double. These implants are already helping people with paralysis control computers and may soon let them move prosthetic limbs with their thoughts, says a report in the Wall Street Journal. So far, fewer than 100 people in history have had these devices permanently implanted. But if trials go well, that number will more than double over the next 12 months. Tech companies and 'neurotech' startups are racing to develop these devices, hoping they'll one day be used by millions. Apple has even said it plans to make its iPhones controllable via brain implants. Four companies are leading the race to bring brain implants to market: Neuralink (founded by Elon Musk), Synchron, Precision Neuroscience and Paradromics. Each uses a different method of getting information from the brain and has its own pros and cons. 'Synchron's brain-computer interface (BCI) aims to restore the control of a touchscreen for patients with limited hand mobility using only their thoughts,' says the company's website. Synchron, a company that has collaborated with Apple, threads its implant through a blood vessel in the brain. According to the Wall Street Journal, this avoids opening the skull and makes surgery simpler. However, the device's readings are less precise. Users need to wear Apple's Vision Pro goggles and still rely on eye-tracking and big imagined movements to click. Precision's device sits on the surface of the brain, not deep inside it. It currently has wires but aims to go fully wireless. The company hopes it could eventually help people speak through thoughts alone. Clinical trials are already underway, with plans to implant the device in up to 100 people in the coming year. With new FDA approval, Precision can now implant its system in patients' heads for up to 30 days. Over the next year, the company plans to install the device in anywhere from several dozen to around a hundred people, according to CEO Michael Mager. If those trials go well, Precision will move on to testing longer-term implants. Paradromics is an American brain–computer interface company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Paradromics uses tiny electrodes that push 1.5 mm into the brain, offering a strong and fast connection. So far, the company has tested the device in sheep, with plans to begin human trials soon. The device may allow for very detailed readings of brain activity, like those of Neuralink. A post shared by Neuralink (@ Elon Musk's Neuralink places its chip deep in the motor cortex, the brain area that controls movement. Threads thinner than a hair carry signals to a chip, which then sends data wirelessly to a computer. Patients can control a computer cursor just by thinking. Three patients have been implanted so far, according to founder Musk. The goal is to help people with severe spinal injuries use technology more independently.
Mint
17-05-2025
- Health
- Mint
Coming to a brain near you: A tiny computer
A high-stakes technology race is playing out in the human brain. Brain-computer interfaces are already letting people with paralysis control computers and communicate their needs, and will soon enable them to manipulate prosthetic limbs without moving a muscle. The year ahead is pivotal for the companies behind this technology. Fewer than 100 people to date have had brain-computer interfaces permanently installed. In the next 12 months, that number will more than double, provided the companies with new FDA experimental-use approval meet their goals in clinical trials. Apple this week announced its intention to allow these implants to control iPhones and other products. There are dozens of so-called 'neurotech" startups. Four lead the field of implants: Paradromics, Synchron, Precision Neuroscience and Elon Musk's Neuralink, which in some ways is the most ambitious of the four. All but Paradromics have reached the point at which they are putting tech inside people's heads. Each has its own approach, and all offer reasons they believe their product will come out ahead. All four are betting they'll eventually become a standard part of care for tens of thousands, perhaps even millions, of us. The prize they're after: Morgan Stanley projects a $1 billion-a-year brain-computer implant market by 2041. Other than perhaps the quest for human-level artificial intelligence, or colonization of other planets—not coincidentally two other areas where Musk is a big proponent—few fields exhibit such a wide gulf between a technology's potential and its near-term prospects. 'There is a vision that this is going to be a mass-consumer thing, which is a vision that you can sell," says Dr. Iahn Cajigas, a neurosurgeon at the University of Pennsylvania who has done pioneering research on brain implants, and has installed them in a handful of patients. 'As a clinician, I find that kind of a dangerous way to talk." These are medical products, he emphasizes, with all the risks that attend brain surgery, including infection. 'To take the risk of a brain implant, if you're a young person with no medical problems, because you're at the mall and you want a better interface with your phone, I don't know how reasonable that is in the current world we live in," Cajigas added. For the leading companies in the brain-computer interface market, it's generally accepted that the more bandwidth required, the more invasive the implant must be. Future breakthroughs in signal processing aside, implants have to go deeper into our brain tissue to get the best performance. Unknowns about safety, performance and cost are why the trials that happen in the coming year could make or break these four contenders. Synchron, the first to collaborate with Apple, is among the least invasive. Its implant, a tubular mesh of electrodes, is run through a major blood vessel in the brain, like a stent. It can be installed without opening the patient's skull, so more physicians could be trained to perform the operation, says Kurt Haggstrom, the company's chief commercial officer. The downside: The brain-activity readings from the electrodes tend to be less precise. In the Apple scenario, patients must wear Apple's Vision Pro goggles for now. They move a cursor via eye tracking, not mind control, then 'click" an item by thinking about a large movement of one of their limbs. By the end of 2025, Synchron is to begin final FDA trials of its implantable brain-computer interface. Those trials will take about two years, says Haggstrom. Precision Neuroscience aims to put a small, flat array of electrodes onto the surface of people's brains. While the current system is wired, Precision is developing one that is completely wireless, where nothing protrudes through skin and it communicates and recharges wirelessly. With 1,024 electrodes spread across 1.5 square centimeters, the system can potentially do more than Synchron's. For example, it might be able to translate thought to speech. A key challenge: Neuralink and others benefit from decades of deep-brain recordings in primates. Precision records neural activity differently, and researchers are only beginning to map the signals, says Cajigas, who has tested it in 11 patients so far. (He's not a paid Precision collaborator.) 'In the next year, I think this could be a viable solution for patients who are amputees to control a robotic hand," he adds. With its new FDA permissions, Precision can install its system in a person's head for up to 30 days. The company will be putting its devices in somewhere between dozens and a hundred patients in the next 12 months, says CEO Michael Mager. If those trials are successful, the company will test more permanent implants. Paradromics' brain-computer interface looks like a coin with Velcro on one side, with 421 tiny electrodes that push 1.5 millimeters into the brain. Installing several of these electrode arrays could allow for an especially fast connection, like the difference between a bad Wi-Fi signal and a great one. It can record from individual neurons, like Neuralink's system, says Chief Executive Matt Angle. The company's electrodes are so small, they could in theory go unnoticed by the patient's brain, preventing the kind of scarring and other issues that bedeviled early systems in university labs, he adds. The company hasn't installed one in a human yet, but two have been inside the brains of sheep for three years, and both maintained a strong connection to the brain throughout that time. Paradromics is part of an FDA program designed to accelerate the approval of breakthrough medical devices, and plans to start its first clinical trial in humans later this year. Neuralink has implanted devices in three patients, Musk, its founder, has said. The second patient has shown off capabilities previously demonstrated only in research labs, where wires went deep into participants' brains and ran directly to external computers. With electrodes implanted seven millimeters into the brain, that Neuralink patient could design software, play videogames and more. This kind of implant comes with potential trade-offs, says Cajigas. There's the question of whether, over time, the brain will respond to these electrodes in ways that make them unusable. And then there's the matter of upgradeability: Once you've put electrodes deep into your cortex, it's not clear how easily you'll be able to take them out and put in a new model. Neuralink didn't respond to requests for comment. Getting a brain implant might one day become as routine as, say, getting a cochlear implant, which by 2022 had reached a million hearing-impaired patients. If so, the ability to directly interface with our brains could be one of the most transformative medical, and potentially consumer, technologies in history. Experts I interviewed described various potential uses for brain-computer interfaces: figuring out which medication works best for our particular brain chemistry; using just thoughts to control vehicles, limbs and exoskeletons; and generating speech directly from thought. Getting there requires vaulting over one other hurdle that has nothing to do with science: These startups have to become real businesses, says Justin Sanchez, former head of brain-implant research at the Pentagon's R&D arm, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. It's possible one could one day become a medical-device giant in its own right. But most of these companies are likely to run out of money or get acquired by big medical-technology companies, first. Whatever happens, brain-computer interfaces have advanced far enough that experts agree they can already give doctors new ways to improve patients' lives, and are likely to show up in many more of our heads in the future. Write to Christopher Mims at
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Yahoo
Apple wants to connect thoughts to iPhone control – and there's a very good reason for it
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Apple announced plans to support Switch Control for Brain-Computer Interfaces The tool would make devices like iPhones and Vision Pro headsets accessible for people with conditions like ALS Combined with Apple's AI-powered Personal Voice feature, brain-computer interfaces could allow people to think words and hear them spoken in a synthetic version of their voice Our smartphones and other devices are key to so many personal and professional tasks throughout the day. Using these devices can be difficult or outright impossible for those with ALS and other conditions. Apple thinks it has a possible solution: thinking. Specifically, a brain-computer interface (BCI) built with Australian neurotech startup Synchron that could provide hands-free, thought-controlled versions of the operating systems for iPhones, iPads, and the Vision Pro headset. A brain implant for controlling your phone may seem extreme, but it could be the key for those with severe spinal cord injuries or related injuries to engage with the world. Apple will support Switch Control for those with the implant embedded near the brain's motor cortex. The implant picks up the brain's electrical signals when a person thinks about moving. It translates that electrical activity and feeds it to Apple's Switch Control software, becoming digital actions like selecting icons on a screen or navigating a virtual environment. Of course, it's still early days for the system. It can be slow compared to tapping, and it will take time for developers to build better BCI tools. But speed isn't the point right now. The point is that people could use the brain implant and an iPhone to interact with a world they were otherwise locked out of. The possibilities are even greater when looking at how it might mesh with AI-generated personal voice clones. Apple's Personal Voice feature lets users record a sample of their own speech so that, if they lose their ability to speak, they can generate synthetic speech that still sounds like them. It's not quite indistinguishable from the real thing, but it's close, and much more human than the robotic imitation familiar from old movies and TV shows. Right now, those voices are triggered by touch, eye tracking, or other assistive tech. But with BCI integration, those same people could 'think' their voice into existence. They could speak just by intending to speak, and the system would do the rest. Imagine someone with ALS not only navigating their iPhone with their thoughts but also speaking again through the same device by "typing" statements for their synthetic voice clone to say. While it's incredible that a brain implant can let someone control a computer with their mind, AI could take it to another level. It wouldn't just help people use tech, but also to be themselves in a digital world. Apple is about to make Personal Voice faster and better, and update almost all of its other accessibility features The ultimate AI search face-off - I pitted Claude's new search tool against ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, and Gemini, the results might surprise you 4 ChatGPT features I hope Apple adds to Siri Apple Intelligence feels like the HomePod all over again
