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IMAGE: As part of the BrainGate clinical trial, researchers are using tiny electrode arrays to record signals from the motor cortex of the brain. Those signals can then be used to...
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Credit: BrainGate.org
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- Researchers with the BrainGate collaboration have, for the first time, used an implanted sensor to record the brain signals associated with handwriting, and used those signals to create text on a computer in real time.
In a study published in the journal
Nature, a clinical trial participant with cervical spinal cord injury used the system to "type" words on a computer at a rate of 90 characters per minute, more than double the previous record for typing with a brain-computer interface. This was done by the participant merely thinking about the hand motions involved in creating written letters.