Brain Computer Interface (BCI) - Improving Quality of Life

One of the most emerging fields globally is the Brain-Machine Interface (or BMI) technologies. BMI technologies are attracting a great deal of interest in academic research, neuroprosthetics, neurotechnologies, electrical engineering, computer science, psychology etc. Corporations like Neuralink led by Elon Musk have already started leveraging the electric signals in brain as a means of neural stimulation to potentially treat brain related illnesses like Parkinson disease, Blindness, Paralysis etc. Building these BMI technologies that are safe, wireless, fully implanted without the need for external equipment and that can be operated by the user himself represents one of the biggest challenges in scalable BMI. Solving this problem requires a multi-disciplinary approach as this will include microfabrication of neuron size threads, high performance signal amplifiers and digitizers, on-chip real time identification and characterization of neural spikes, biocompatible materials engineering, precision neuro insertion through robotics and imaging technologies, and adaptive algorithms for neural decoding.