Paralyzed Patient Can Now Write as Fast as Smartphone By ‘Mindwriting’ With Brain Signals

A man paralyzed from the neck down has gained the ability to type words with his brain about as fast as the average smartphone user.

This “mindwriting” was done through a science-fiction sounding brain-computer interface (BCI) that picked up neural signals and fed them into an algorithm which translated them into letters. The most common error the machine made was with lowercase letters of similar shapes, such as ‘r’, ‘h’, and ‘n’.

The secret to the success  is that he imagined writing words down with a pen—a skill which imprints so thoroughly on our motor skill system that it remains for years after paralysis evidently.

The new BCI isn’t yet developed enough to be called a prototype, meaning it will likely be years before more paralysis victims can regain their ability to communicate. However, this also means the room for refinement is much higher, scientists  explained.