The Agency for Advanced Defense Research Projects (DARPA) has announced the launch of a program aimed at developing a high-tech implant that can create a kind of communication bridge between the human brain and biocompatible devices. The agency hopes that the development of such technology in the framework of the Neural Engineering System Design (NESD) program will receive a very wide range of applications both in research projects and in medicine.
While computers continue to evolve in great strides, humankind has still not developed a system that can truly interact with all the abilities of the human brain. The DARPA program is aimed at addressing this issue and, if successfully implemented, will significantly increase the capabilities of the neurotechnology sphere.
"Today's best representatives of computer-brain interface technologies are more like how two supercomputers try to communicate with each other using an old 300-baud modem," said Philip Alvelda, NESD program manager.
“Just imagine what will open up before us if we can modernize the communication channel between the human brain and modern electronics.”
The currently used neural interfaces in a variety of research programs have to compress a huge amount of information and distribute its transmission over hundreds of channels, each of which receives sensory information sent by tens of thousands of neurons. It is not surprising that this does not lead to outstanding results at all, and the transmitted information is often affected by external noise, which reduces its accuracy.
DARPA believes that the next generation of neural interfaces will be much more accurate and ultimately lead to the development of implantable systems of neural transmission channels that will be able to receive data from one million neurons and not exceed one cubic centimeter in size.
The difficulties encountered in the development of such interfaces, including the complexity of the research and design of the final design of such devices, are phenomenal. According to the agency, to address these issues, it will be necessary to make a serious technological breakthrough in several different scientific fields at once, ranging from synthetic biology and neurobiology to developments in low-power electronics. NESD project researchers will develop new sophisticated methods for transcoding electromechanical signals of brain neurons and transmitting them with the highest possible accuracy to computer systems.
If the program proves its viability, then we will have a wide range of potential applications of these technologies. We expect amazing discoveries in neurotechnology. The sensory information collected by implants can be used, for example, to develop new technologies that will improve the hearing and vision of patients, as well as to develop new methods of treating various diseases.
The article is based on materials .
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