Neuralink is developing implantable chips with Bluetooth that can communicate with computers via a small receiver, and has previously demonstrated the technology in pigs.
“He’s learned to interact with a computer for a tasty banana smoothie delivered through a straw,” says the narrator in the video as Pager moves a cursor on the screen with a joystick.
The two Neuralink devices register the brain activity via more than 2,000 small electrodes implanted in Pager’s motor cortex, which controls hand and arm movements, according to the video.
Neuralink feeds the information from the monkey’s neurons to a decoder, which can then be used to predict Pager’s intended hand movements and model the relationship between brain activity and joystick movements.
After a short calibration period, the output from the decoder can be used to move the cursor, instead of the Pager manipulating the joystick. Then the joystick is disconnected and the pager is shown to move the cursor using only its brain.
“Our goal is to enable a person with paralysis to use a computer or telephone with just brain activity,” the narrator says, explaining that people would calibrate their decoder by imagining hand movements.
Musk also discussed plans for the devices on Twitter on Thursday.
“Later versions will be able to redirect signals from Neuralinks in the brain to Neuralinks in clusters of motor / sensory neurons in the body, allowing paraplegics, for example, to walk again,” he added.