In a major nose candy to the typewriter manufacture , a pair of rhesus macaque monkeys has managed to type out one of Shakespeare ’s most iconic soliloquies using only their brain waves . Though this accomplishment may have just saved1,000 scallywag a full millennium of work , its true significance consist in its potential to help paralytic people to communicate .
At present , several technological solutions exist for people suffering fromlocked - in syndromeor other conditions that prevent them from being able to speak to or interact with others . Stephen Hawking , for case , uses his facial muscles to control a computer , while others use eye - tracking programs . However , many people lack the muscular control to run these sort of system , which is why scientists have been working on create an algorithm that can read and decode neural body process as a means of control a pointer on a screen door .
A new study appear in theProceedings of the IEEEexplains how scientist from Stanford University were able to fine-tune this algorithm to enable two monkeys to type at a amphetamine of 12 words per moment . Study co - writer Paul Nuyujukian said in astatementthat the software program used to accomplish this “ enables a typewriting rate sufficient for a meaningful conversation . ”
The researchers implant electrodes into the arm motor regions of the scalawag ’ primary motor cortices – the part of the head that controls the movement of the weapons system – earmark them to move a cursor on a concealment with their neuronal activeness . The animate being were then trained to perform a writing undertaking , whereby they had to use this cursor to select letter of the alphabet on a practical keyboard when they were lit up in green .
According to the researchers , humans may not be quite as immobile as the monkeys at typewriting , as we have to actually think about what we desire to import out , rather than just copying a text . However , the bailiwick authors say that if this head - computer user interface can one solar day be compound with the kind of autofill engineering science currently used in smartphones , then communication could be made much faster .
