Apple is developing a system allowing those with physical disabilities to use their thoughts to operate devices.
Tuesday saw the tech behemoth reveal a collaboration with Synchron, a brain-computer interface (BCI) company creating an implantable device with electrodes reading brain signals. According to the press release, this technology helps Apple to convert these signals into actions like choosing icons on the screens of iPhones, iPads, and Apple Vision Pro “without the need for physical movement or voice commands.”
The article in the Wall Street Journal on Apple and Synchron’s early testers for creating this new kind of technological communication covered Mark Jackson, a Pittsburgh resident with ALS, has the Synchron brain implant known as Stentrode, a “stent-like device implanted in a vein atop the motor cortex of the brain.” The Journal said, “the device effectively translates brain waves, allowing a user to navigate around a screen and select an icon.”
Jackson was able to virtually “peer over the ledge of a mountain in the Swiss Alps and feel his legs shake,” even though his limited motor ability prevents him from being able to stand up, when using the Apple Vision Pro while hooked to the Stentrode.
