The Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded funding to six organizations to create non- or minimally invasive wearable technology allowing the bidirectional flow of information between the human brain and computers.
DARPA's Next-Generation Nonsurgical Neurotechnology program was announced in 2018 with a primary goal of developing high-resolution neural interfaces allowing able-bodied service members to control drones and other computer systems with their brains. According to the DOD, however, this technology will also benefit clinical populations by providing nonsurgical methods to manage neurological diseases.
Here are the six recipients of DARPA's N3 funding and the brain-machine interfaces they have proposed.
- Battelle Memorial Institute: a nanotransducer injected into the body, then directed to the brain to complete a task via communication with a helmet-based transceiver.
- Carnegie Mellon University: a "hat" worn on the scalp containing technology to both measure neural activity by guiding and focusing light in the brain and send information to specific neurons by stimulating cells using interfering electrical fields.
- Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory: a noninvasive system that records neural activity by measuring optical path-length changes in neural tissue.
- Palo Alto Research Center: a device pairing ultrasound waves with magnetic fields to generate localized electric currents that can stimulate nerve activity in the brain.
- Rice University: a headset powered by light, ultrasound and electromagnetic energy to transfer neural activity from one person's visual cortex to another's in a fraction of a second.
- Teledyne Scientific: an external device that uses magnetometers to detect magnetic fields correlating with neural activity, as well as focused ultrasound to transmit information to neurons.
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