Humans Can Become Cyborgs Now — Here’s How
How BCIs are the future of prosthetics
Cyborgs. It’s interesting right? 🤔 We’ve all probably seen these ‘half human-half robot’ characters somewhere on a futuristic Netflix movie. The one that has one robotic eye, arm and leg, but everything else about them seems normal?
What if I told you that becoming cyborgs isn’t futuristic, that it’s already happening? 🤯 That humans — and animals — already have access to this technology?
It’s called a Brain Computer Interface (BCI).
So, what exactly is a BCI?
To put it in simpler terms, a BCI uses brain or nervous system data to control computers or machines. Think of a BCI like the Internet, but for your brain. When you go onto the Internet, you immediately gain access to so many resources. Well, a BCI is the same. Once a BCI connects to brain waves, it opens the ‘Internet of The Brain’ where unknown questions can be answered just as easily as a Google search.
I mean, I get it. We don’t want to have brain surgery if it’s not for medical reasons. We don’t want to have some microchip implanted into our brains. Even though cyborgs are awesome, we’d rather not have someone constantly tracking our brain activity. Scientists have implanted electrodes and microchips in animals-so what’s stopping them from putting them in humans?
That’s where most people stop thinking about this possibility entirely-even though, and most people don’t know this, no brain surgery is required in this process. It’s all non-invasive.
Invasive versus Non-Invasive BCIs
Invasive BCIs are expensive (anywhere from $5,000-$10,000 😮), pose risk to the patient and are largely confined to labs while non-invasive BCIs are more accessible and affordable (can be done on a device/headset — $1,000). Non-invasive BCIs are slower, have limited signal to noise ratios, and have a decreased ability to target specific areas due to the distance between the BCI and the neuron that it wants to record data from.
This is an example of an invasive BCI. A 96 pin micro electrode grid implanted into the person’s brain is reading their brain activity. They are thinking about writing “hello”, and the BCI records it, translates it to data that a computer can understand, and then records the word “hello” on the screen.
Of course brain surgery and invasive BCIs will give more accurate results, right? 🧐 Actually, no.
Recently, non-invasive BCIs have produced similar to equally accurate results of interpreting brain signals.
How do non-invasive BCIs work then?
Non-invasive BCIs are a way to get information about brain waves without brain surgery or the implantations of micro electrodes. Typically, sensors are placed on the scalp to measure the electrical potentials produced by the brain.
- EEGs
One very common example of this is an electroencephalogram (EEG). It’s used to measure the electrical activity of the brain.
On the left, there’s a picture of an EEG cap. This is typically placed on the scalp of the patient. On the right, the electrical activity of neurons in the cerebral cortex is represented as waves of similar frequencies, amplitudes, and shapes.
Once the EEG cap is on the patient’s head, it starts to record brain activity. The brain waves are then interpreted into data that a computer can understand. The computer processes this data, and translates it into the desired action.
To make this easier, let’s use an example. You’ve already got the EEG cap on, it’s already hooked up to a computer, and you’re already in front of a TV controlled by the researchers. So, let’s just say you want to turn a piece as a part of a brain game. You would make your decision, and a screen would appear, similar to this one:
On both sides of the “yes” or “no”, lights are flashing, both at different frequencies 💡. The “yes” light has a frequency of 12 hertz while the “no” light has a frequency of 13 hertz. If you want to move the piece, you focus your eyes on the 12 hertz light. Once the EEG picks up on the consistent flashing at 12 hertz, the option “yes” is selected. Once the option “yes” is selected, the piece is turned.
This is just one of the many examples of the applications of an EEG, but currently they’re being used for medical reasons as well. EEGs can be used to treat epilepsy in seizure patients. It analyses the brain waves of a patient before a seizure occurs, and in the future, when it recognizes those same patterns, it warns the patient about an upcoming seizure.
2. EMGs
Another example of a non-invasive BCI is electromyography (EMG). It measures muscle response or electrical activity in response to a nerve’s stimulation of the muscles. In other words, an EMG is a record of electrical activity of muscles and motor neurons. Motor neurons are a specialised type of brain cell located within the spinal cord and the brain. EEGs record data from the brain while EMGs record data from the muscles.
Currently, EMGs are being used as armbands. The small armband reads signals from the part of the arm that it’s placed on, reads the spinal cord signals that the brain produces in response to the action of the arm, and carries out the appropriate action. These armbands don’t require anything other than the armband itself, unlike EEGs. No weird looking cap.
Typically, EMG armbands are used with prosthetics. The person has usually had an amputation on that arm, and uses an EMG armband to read signals in the working part of that arm to tell the prosthetic what to do.
Another example 😄. For this example (the picture above) no cap is needed, the person is already wearing the armband. They think about moving the rest of their arm (the one with the prosthetic). The signal starts in their brain, and that message gets sent down their spinal cord. This results in muscle signals that are able to be picked up by the armband, which sends the signals to the prosthetic. This ultimately leads to the person being able to move the prosthetic arm — just by thinking.
How exactly do you control prosthetics? Using motor neuroprosthetics.
Motor neuroprosthetics
Motor neuroprosthetics is a type of BCI that generates physical movement. It’s a device that can translate the user’s intention to move to a prosthetic limb into machine-readable signals, so that the limb can be controlled appropriately.
These includes the controlling of:
- Prosthetics Limbs
- Exo suits
- Vehicles Control
Neuroprosthetic limbs add advanced brain control to robotic limbs.
Applications
In 2016, DARPA’s (Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency) Revolutionising Prosthetics program, which has around $120M dollars in funding, reported that their Modular Prosthetic Limb (MPL) was able to add an accurate sense of touch to brain-controlled prosthetic limbs.
Remember the picture from before? The one with the EMG armbands?
The prosthetic in this picture is the MPL.
But how does the MPL work? It’s basically like a more advanced EMG armband, because there’s a computer already inside the prosthetic. The MPL measures muscle signals from the residual limb of somebody who’s had an amputation. Those muscle signals then get read into a computer that’s on the prosthetic, and the prosthetic sees those signals.
Together, the electromyographic (EMG) band and the Modular Prosthetic Limb (MPL) help to make the perfect prosthetic available for humans to use. When using the MPL, it can sometimes be so accurate that the test subjects feel as if their arm has grown back-just like a starfish.
So, how does this all tie in to becoming a cyborg? I’m glad you asked.
Here’s an example of a man who recently became the first highly advanced cyborg to exist. He’s described to be “something of a guinea pig for experimental prosthetics”. This is him — Johnny Matheny.
As a way to pay it forward, Johnny reached out to prosthetics developers to see if he could test out and improve the already existing prosthetics on the market. His goal was to test the prosthetic in his everyday life, and hopefully improve little glitches or abnormalities so that other people who were in the same position as him would already have the tested and improved versions of these prosthetics.
He teamed up with John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory to help develop more advanced prosthetics. Once the robotic arm was fully developed and ready to use, and after Johnny had spent hours and hours training to use it, the John Hopkins Lab team sent the prosthetic home with Johnny to test in his everyday activities. There, he tested the prosthetic’s capabilities as well as its technological capabilities. The team wanted to see how far Johnny could push the limits of his robotic arm, and after just one year, Johnny was able to play a piece on the piano. He had always wanted to play piano, and thought that trying to learn would push the limits of the arm.
One of the researchers at the John Hopkins Lab, Luke Osborn, posted updates about Johnny’s story on his Twitter page. All the steps are shown through pictures and videos. They even have a video of Johnny playing the piano.
Here’s another example of someone who was able to play piano for the first time in 5 years with the help of an ultrasound prosthetic:
TL;DR
- Brain Computer Interfaces (BCIs) use brain or nervous system data to control computers or machines. For example, it can turn the thought of writing “hello” into the action of typing it onto a computer.
- There are 2 main types of BCIs: Invasive and Non-Invasive. Invasive BCIs require brain surgery to implant electrodes into the brain to get more accurate brain reading results. Non-Invasive BCIs don’t require brain surgery-they are most commonly found in electrode caps or armbands.
- The two main non-invasive BCIs are: EMG (electromyography), and EEG (electroencephalography). An EMG is a record of electrical activity of muscles and motor neurons. EEGs are used to measure the electrical activity of the brain.
- Modular Prosthetic Limbs (MPLs) are a type of motor neuroprosthetic: a BCI that generates physical movement.
- EMG armbands and MPLs work together to make the most perfect, most realistic prosthetic available. Users say they have an accurate sense of touch, even though they’re just using a prosthetic.
Isn’t this SO COOL 😎? Johnny is the first “sophisticated” cyborg to exist on this earth. And who knows, maybe one day you could be a cyborg too. We just have to wait a couple more years, once the prosthetics are tested again, and maybe we can all be cyborgs — just like Johnny.
I hope you enjoyed reading my article! I hope this was helpful 😁. Feel free to connect with me on my LinkedIn — I’m happy to answer any questions, and I’d love for you to let me know if you liked this article. You can follow me on my Medium page to stay updated on any content that I make!
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aryanna-gangani-88933a253/
