Mind-Controlled Medical Devices? It May Happen Sooner Than You ThinkMind-Controlled Medical Devices? It May Happen Sooner Than You Think

Bin He, a biomedical engineering professor at the University of Minnesota’s College of Science and Engineering, used to call it the thinking cap: an EEG cap that consists of electrosensors placed just over the scalp. However, this cap has now become a potent key to medical devices, particularly for those who suffer disabilities.

By just thinking about hand motions, researchers in He’s laboratory at the University of Minnesota have been able to pilot a remote controlled aircraft with their minds alone. These thoughts have been translated into control signals, sent through a wifi network in order to control the four-blade flying robot. Although this may seem like just good fun, this development is unusual in that it is completely noninvasive.

“It’s something that’s comparable to a specific task that used to be accomplished by implanting a chip,” He says. Before this point, most of the developments in mind-controlled medical devices have been invasive, requiring implantation into the brain. This research has helped patients move robotic arms despite being paralyzed. He says that the noninvasive technology has not been able to keep up until their recent development.

Part of the technology is in the imagining of movement versus the movement itself, which activates a part of the brain and sends out the signal. The technology that He and his team have developed is able to interpret it and send it out to different devices.

The EEG cap is a standard tool used in neuro research, and He says the cap wasn’t specialized in any way. Rather, it was the way that he and his team picked up the signal once it was detected. “I have spent my entire life studying the brainwave, and there’s a lot of innovations in how to process the signal and code the signal, and have it picked up by the EEG sensors," he says.

Part of the reason for the lag is that the sensors had to become powerful enough to track a thought through the cap. He says the energy from the thoughts is on a microvolt level. “[An] electrical signal is a voltage, and this is a million times smaller,” He says.

The difference, according to He, is in the technology behind the EEG cap, not to mention the detection software that the university has been able to develop. “The technology has advanced in such a way to be able to clean up all the background noise and pick up the extremely weak signal of a thought,” he says.

The movement of the flying robot was only the beginning for He and his team. The next step involves clinical trials to reach the point where He has been striving for in his research: To use this technology to operate different medical devices. He sees the potential for the cap to be able to help disabled people control their own wheelchairs and artificial limbs. But those are only the beginning.

“The fundamental principal for a device is if you can decode it, you can use it for other external devices,” he says. Although the main focus will be in medical, He could the potential in other industries. Not bad for a basic thinking cap.

Reina V. Slutske is the assistant editor for MD+DI.