Washington:
Apple is making strides towards a future where people control their iPhones with thoughts, using brain implants, according to a report in a leading American daily. This is similar to the vision of Elon Musk’s Neuralink.
The tech giant is reportedly working closely with Synchron, a brain-interface company, which has developed a stent-like device called the Stentrode, The Wall Street Journal reported. This implant is inserted into a blood vessel near the brain’s motor cortex and reads brain signals to control digital devices. Such technology could be life-changing for people with severe spinal cord injuries, ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), or those recovering from strokes.
These implants work by picking up brain activity and turning it into digital commands. A Brain-Computer Interface (BCI), as it is called, allows the brain to communicate directly with a computer or device. When a person thinks, the brain sends out signals. BCIs capture those signals through sensors and convert them into actions, like moving a cursor, typing, or opening apps, without needing to touch the screen.
The Stentrode works with Apple’s built-in feature called “switch control,” which lets users change how they interact with their devices, switching from a joystick to a brain signal.
“Today, brain computer-interface companies have to trick computers into thinking the signals coming from their implants are coming from a mouse,” Synchron’s CEO Tom Oxley told WSJ.
He said Apple’s new standard, expected to be released later this year, will make it easier for developers to connect implants directly with devices.
One early user, Mark Jackson, who has ALS, uses the Synchron device to operate Apple’s Vision Pro headset and his iPhone from home. He can’t travel or stand, but the brain-implant lets him access Apple’s devices in a new way. He told WSJ that through the headset, he was “able to peer over the ledge of a mountain in the Swiss Alps and feel my legs shake.”
Elon Musk’s Neuralink has already implanted its device, the N1, in a human. It has over 1,000 electrodes placed inside the brain, capturing far more data than Synchron’s 16 electrodes that sit on top. Neuralink’s first user can move a cursor with thoughts faster than some people using a mouse.
Musk has said that such implants could one day boost brain power and help people compete with advanced artificial intelligence.
Morgan Stanley estimates around 150,000 Americans with serious upper-limb impairments could be early users of brain-implant tech. They predict the first commercial approval could come by 2030, but Synchron’s CEO believes it could happen sooner.
