One of Elon Musk’s ventures, Neuralink, has achieved a remarkable feat in brain implants by making a Monkey play Ping Pong video game without using its hands. The company released a YouTube video showing this incredible development.
Elon Musk- Man with a Plan, a man of mysteries, or innovation, to put it the other way. He has indulged in creating futuristic technology for human utilization for some years now. Elon Musk founded Neuralink with seven other partners in 2016. Neuralink now works on a functional Brain-machine interface to link the human Brain and external hardware.
Scientists expect this technology to have the potential to transform humanity by curing serious Brain diseases at first. After advanced developments, it could lead to human enhancement, making the human Brain more advanced than it naturally is.
Neuralink and the Link
Neuralink is planning to implant a neural implant called the Link in Human Brain. Would use this device to relay signals from the Brain parts which control movement. Thin electrodes would connect the Link and the Brain. These electrodes are the link that transmits the electrical signals of the Brain to the implant.
Neuralink says that the device would be used as a link between the brain signals and the devices we use every day. With the implant’s help, we could control those devices wherever we go, simply by using our Brain. The Neuralink implant would be connected to devices such as iPhones, keyboards, and such devices, just by thinking about them.
This technology is mainly focused on giving autonomy to disabled people. As the device would link them with the world’s devices, it would help them express themselves freely. These devices were introduced in August 2020 to press.
Neuralink has been using a monkey to test their device. Elon Musk said on 31st January that the company is using a monkey and the device to play video games. He said that the company is working to increase the speed of signals traveling from the Brain to the devices.
Brain Implants and the future
Using Brain waves to control devices is not new in the tech field. In 2006, Matthew Nagle, a paralyzed person, used his Brain to play a ping pong game with a device’s help. But, he was able to do it only after rigorous training for four days. Now, technology has developed very much. Elon Musk hinted in February that Neuralink would release some videos to show its progress.
As a result, Neuralink posted a video on YouTube today, showing a monkey playing Ping Pong videogame using a Brain implant. The video, titled monkey MindPong, shows Pager, a nine-year-old macaque playing Ping Pong Video game. Pager was implanted with the Link 6 weeks before the filming of the video. The monkey first uses its hands and a joystick to move squares in a video game to show which part of the brain fires up. So, it was given a reward, a banana smoothie, through a metal straw. After that, the monkey starts to play the Ping Pong game using its brain and a neuro implant without its hands.
Elon Musk soon shared this video on Twitter, who also stated that he would further develop the technology to make people with paraplegia walk again using these implants.
Image courtesy of Marques Brownlee/YouTube Screenshot