Before going into talking about this peculiar device, tell you that it has been tested in patients with locked-in syndrome, a disease that causes practically all those affected by it to have total paralysis which means not only that they cannot move, but they also cannot speak and cannot even blink, something that could at least help them communicate by indicating slight signs to say, for example, 'SI" or "DO NOT'.
With this in mind, work such as the one carried out in the Geneva Neuroengineering Center, where they have created and developed an interface between the brain of these people and a software system capable of interpreting a series of brain signals that serve as a response to certain stimuli. As a detail, tell you that when evaluating this system with four of these patients, three of them stated that they wanted to continue living.
Niels Birbaumer and his team manage to develop a device capable of making patients with profound paralysis able to communicate again.
Undoubtedly, as for us, that this type of project is financed and carried out this is a joy for this type of people who, not being able to communicate with anyone, something that is totally opposite to the nature of the human being, they see how thanks to a simple helmet equipped with sensors, they can begin, although in a very simple way, to communicate and answer the questions of their loved ones.
The architect that this project continues to develop is the neuroscientist niels birbaumer that thanks to this peculiar helmet capable of measure changes in electrical waves produced by the brain while monitors blood flow It has been achieved that its precision in patients is 70%, which, in turn, allows us to have some confidence that we are facing a system that can establish a much more effective way for these patients to communicate.
Further information: MIT