Neural Dust: An Ultrasonic, Low Power Solution for Chronic Brain-Machine Interfaces

University of California, Berkeley researchers put out a paper discussing the possible development of mind-reading “neural dust,” which could be implanted directly into the human brain to allow people to interact with machines.

“Turn People into Machines”

The paper is what the MIT Technology Review calls a theoretical study: The idea is “littered with challenges beyond the state-of-the-art.”

How bout legal and moral issues?

But according to the Berkeley team, this neural dust sprinkled into an individual’s brain tissue could form an “implantable neural interface system that remains viable for a lifetime.”

In other words, “We can put the stuff into people with out them knowing about it.” If you are wondering where this science is heading, watch this.. and remember: YOU ARE THE MONKEY

The particles of neural dust would be very small, not more than 100 micrometers across — that’s 100 millionths of a meter. Each particle would actually be a sensor capable of measuring electrical activity in neurons, covered in polymer to render it biologically neutral and backed by a piezoelectric material that could convert electrical signals into ultrasound.

Related:  Scientists ‘herd’ cells with an electrical zap!

Source materials: Technology Review, HuffPost, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences and †Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

Image: Geoff Tompkinson