Brain Computer Interface Careers
- Someday your brain may be linked directly to your computer.blue brain image by John Sfondilias from Fotolia.com
Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI) take the keyboard and mouse out of the loop; you control the computer or some other machine directly. You think about something and the mechanical device responds. You control machinery like you control your hands and feet; you think, it responds. BCI careers are mostly in the future, but there are already applications that provide full-time employment today. - Traditionally, artificial limbs have been so hard to control that amputees often take them off and do without. For example, the traditional way to control an artificial hand was by manipulating the opposite shoulder which controlled straps that open and closed the hand. Neuroprostheses changed all of that. With the modern artificial arm, the hand movements are controlled by electrical signals that originate in the brain -- exactly like the way people control flesh-and-blood arms and hands. Control is either by electrodes planted in the brain or by sensors that detect signals in the residual limb. Often the prosthetic arm has an artificial neural network so that, as the wearer learns to use the arm, the arm is "learning" to interpret the signals from the user. There are already hundreds of people employed to design, build and train people to use these prosthetic limbs.
- Fighter jets go so fast that the pilots have trouble moving their hands fast enough to control the planes. By the time a pilot reaches up to flick a switch, the aircraft can easily go several miles. Some years ago, the Department of Defense Advanced Projects (DARPA) started investigating BCI interfaces for jet pilots. Now the Navy, NASA and FFA all have working models of BCI systems that allow pilots to directly control airplanes. Prototypes already exist for BCI that control other machines, like giant earth-moving equipment and large cranes. BCI can greatly simplify the controls of complex machinery and designers and testers are actively employed today in developing these new controls.
- There is a large population of people so severely paralyzed that they have trouble controlling wheelchairs or even operating a computer or TV remote. BCI is the only interface they have available. Hundreds of people are currently employed designing and building devices to help these people. There are already systems that allow people to move cursors around a computer screen and surf the Web by simply thinking about where they want the cursor to go. There are also people designing similar BCI systems for unimpaired people to use in situations where a mouse and keyboard are impractical, such as underwater or in outer space.
