A Brief History of MInd Control Technology

The brain-computer interface (BCI), (a.k.a. neural interface or brain-machine interface), is a direct communication link between a brain and an external electronic device. BCIs are most commonly intended to assist, augment or fully repair cognitive or sensory-motor functionality often sustained after injury or from birth defect.

Research on Neural Interface Technology started in the 70s at UCLA and was first funded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant and after showing some promise, garnered a contract from DARPA (the real inventors of the net). It vwas during this research that the phrase "brain-computer interface" first made it's appearance in published scientific literature.

BCI technology has developed exponentially since the early days, with the most growth in the area of neuroprosthetics. Neuroprosthetics attempt to restore the patient's damaged senses and/or movement. The brain's amazing ability to reroute signals and adapt to injury, allow signals emitted from prosthethetic devices to, (after therapy and adjustment), be understood by the brain like natural nerve impulses. After many years of laboratory research on animals, the first human neuroprosthetic implants were done in the mid 90's.

BCIs and neuroprosthetics are generally used in conjunction, to some degree, although the terms are not interchangeable. Neuroprosthetics most often create a pathway between the nervous system to a prosthetic device (which, of course, has a computer in it). Brain Computer Interface technology is most commonly used to connect the brain, or nervous system with a computer system.

Neuroprosthetic devices became common place at the end of the 20th century, the most common implant being the well-known cochlear implant, which, has been implanted in well over 100,000 people.

Early BCI research was encouraging because it showed that various animals, from Mice to Monkeys, could perform simple tasks using only Mind Control, such as moving a cursor on a monitor, or controlling a robotic arm. Further research conducted at Johns Hopkins University discovered a key mathematical corelation between the electrical responses of individual motor-cortex neurons in monkeys and the direction that they moved their arms.

Later, at the end of the 1990's, researchers were able to decode impulses from the brains of cats and, using a mathematical filter, reconstruct the information into recognizable images on a screen - essentially showing what the cats were seeing on a video monitor.

Early human BCI research took on several forms, which include; invasive implants, partially invasive implants, non-invasive implants, EEG, MEG and MRI. Electroencephalogram (EEG) is the preffered form of Mind Controlled Technology being utilized in today's consumer electronics and computer interface markets.