Brain technology firms are moving nearer to the public at large with implants and masks. • Technology

 The CEO of Synchronization sees a future in which just your brain is used to interface with technology. But first...

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"Personal computing's Future"

I put on a sensor-enhanced helmet and went down to play a video game earlier this month. My hands were motionless; I moved my face to play the game.

When I strained my cheek muscle beneath my right eye, a cat projected in front of me moved to the right. Each pressure beneath my left eye forced me to shift to the left. The cat dashed across an alley, munching fishbones and avoiding rodents and rubbish cans.

The game was created by OpenBCI Inc., a Brooklyn-based firm that develops tools for neuroscience and others. The Galea helmet, named after Roman army headgear, intends to provide scientists with input from face muscles, eye movements, and the like. The data will subsequently be used to help them build their own biomedical research gadgets.

"The main objective is to make admission into the business as simple as possible for novices," said Conor Russomanno, co-founder, and CEO of OpenBCI. The headgear and accompanying software cost roughly $25,000. Customers such as neuroscientists, researchers, game firms, and flight simulator companies have preordered the current edition of Galea, which will be available next year.

The technology of OpenBCI reflects the flurry of interest in neuroscience startups and so-called brain-computer interface firms. The most well-known is Elon Musk's Neuralink. In a Friday story, I reported that Inner Cosmos had effectively implanted electrodes into the bone of a patient's skull to cure severe depression.

A BCI, strictly speaking, should stimulate the neurons in our brains, interpret the signals given by neurons, and utilize the information to operate some type of external device, such as a computer mouse. Some scientists use the term BCI to refer to devices that do not reach far into the brain, and BMI, or central nervous system interface, to refer to devices that penetrate deeply enough into the tissue to interact on a neuron-by-neuron basis. The phrases are increasingly being used interchangeably.

It's unclear how many individuals will agree to have their brain surgically removed to address a condition, much alone a life-altering one like paralysis. However, an increasing number of neuroscientists believe that healthy individuals will seek implanted electrodes to help them with everyday tasks.

"BCI is going to provide this analog to digital converters that go beyond what your ten fingers can achieve," said Tom Oxley, CEO of Synchron Inc., a BCI startup that just implanted its first patient in the United States. "This is the promise of pcs and laptops."

Oxley believes that if the necessary chips can be inserted easily as an outpatient operation, they will become as acceptable and commonplace as Lasik, the once treatment that is now ordinary.

Russomanno of OpenBCI is looking at the short term. "The next generation of headsets will be a full-fledged computer that you wear on your head," he said, with multiple models for home or business. He suggested, only half-jokingly, that individuals will be more hesitant to undergo Botox to keep full use of their facial muscles for manipulating the gadgets. And he has learned to wiggle each brow individually to manage the software hands-free. He's trying to perfect the same approach for each ear.

I'm still not there. My video game score of 4,760 was assessed by OpenBCI Chief Commercial Officer Joseph Artuso as "not bad for a first timer." With a score of, Russomanno is the champion.

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