The U.S. military’s Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) unveiled plans this week to develop a program capable of bridging the gap between the human brain and the digital world.
The Neural Engineering System Design (NESD)’s goal is to develop a biocompatible device no bigger than one cubic centimeter in size to essentially create the precursors to cyborgs.
“Today’s best brain-computer interface systems are like two supercomputers trying to talk to each other using an old 300-baud modem,” said NESD’s program manager Phillip Avelda. “Imagine what will become possible when we upgrade our tools to really open the channel between the human brain and modern electronics.”
Whereas current neural interfaces are restricted to sending swaths of information through only 100 channels, each channel using signals from tens of thousands of neurons at a time, the NESD program hopes to develop a system that can coherently communicate with up to 1 million neurons in any given region of the brain.
Essentially, the device will be capable of translating the ones and zeros from the information technology language to the electrochemical language of neurons.
Potential applications for the program include devices capable of compensating for deficiencies in sight and hearing by feeding digital auditory and visual information to the brain.
DARPA plans on investing $60 million in the program over a four-year period. Achieving the programs goals will require breakthroughs in neuroscience, synthetic biology, low-power electronics, photonics, medical device packaging and manufacturing, systems engineering, and clinical testing.
DARPA will hold a meeting for potential participants on Feb. 2-3 in Arlington, Va. A link to the notice can be found here.
