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www.us- tech.com


Tech-Op-ed August, 2019 SOUNDING OFF


By Michael Skinner Editor


Moving at the Speed of Thought


A


s kids we were taught, sometimes to songs or rhymes, that seeing, hear- ing, tasting, touching, and feeling were the rules that would define how we experience and interact with the world. The problem is, the power-


house that is the human brain has to filter information through these five nar- row channels, which is limiting. Now, thanks to companies like Neuralink, BrainCo, Neurable, and oth-


ers, through careful pattern recognition of our brain’s natural electromagnet- ic signals, new technology is allowing our thoughts immediate access to the outside world. Brain-machine interface (BMI) research began in the 1970s at the Uni-


versity of California, Los Angeles. In 1973, Jacques J. Vidal, one of the founders of UCLA’s computer science department and a member of the uni- versity’s Brain Research Institute, published a groundbreaking paper titled “Toward Direct Brain-Computer Communication.” In the paper, he describes that the brain’s stochastic electromagnetic ac-


tivity — up to a few tens of microvolts and less than a single cycle per second— is occasionally interrupted by distinctive 0.5- to 2-second waveforms of a few microvolts each “buried in the ongoing activity.” He found that these signals were evoked through stimuli such as a visual cue or a touch on the arm. The roots of his research run far deeper. More than two decades prior,


German psychiatrist Hans Berger made the first electroencephalographic (EEG) recording of human brain activity. His technique, named “recording the electrical activity of the human brain from the surface of the head,” was met with derision by the medical establishments of the time. Berger inserted silver wires under his subjects’ scalps, one each in the


front and the back. Using a Siemens recording galvanometer, he was able to pick up signals as weak as a ten-thousandth of a volt. Berger, however, was fairly perplexed as to the reason he was able to pick up any activity, having no formal knowledge of mechanics or electricity. But, even accidental discov- eries are valuable, and the alpha wave, the basic, thalamic, 8 to 12 Hz, neu- ral oscillations in the brain are now known as Berger waves. Today, building on the work of Vidal and Berger, Elon Musk’s Neuralink


is using incredibly thin, flexible, polymer threads, inserted into the brain by a Star Trek-esque sewing machine, and a chip that can handle 3,072 electrodes to capture brain activity. Data is transmitted to a computer by a USB-C plug. This project has drawn some criticism from the academic community, as


Neuralink has the resources to jump into the field of BMI and demonstrate state-of-the-art technology relatively quickly, but not yet push beyond it. The company is still unable to transmit data wirelessly, which has been accom- plished by others, such as BrainGate, developed by Brown University and Blackrock Microsystems back in 2015. The goal is to control the physical environment using thought alone.


Projects like Carnegie Mellon University’s noninvasive robotic brain-comput- er interface (BCI) this past June have demonstrated that patients wearing EEG headcaps can direct a robotic arm to point at a cursor as it moves around on a computer screen. This was the first time a noninvasive technology exhib- ited the sort of smooth and unimpeded motion that has been, until then, re- served for brain implants. “Can these observable electrical brain signals be put to work as carriers


of information in man-computer communication or for the purpose of control- ling such external apparatus as prosthetic devices or spaceships?” wondered Vidal in his 1973 paper. The implications are limitless. With the right amount of bandwidth,


wireless communication between the brain and a computer would offer incred- ible opportunities — invasive or not. Applications can be found for manufac- turing, business and finance, military and defense, research, social network- ing, sports, entertainment; try to imagine a field that would not benefit from near-immediate mental communication between humans and machines. Pump the brakes, though. While today’s implants can capture and relay


around 200 DVDs’ worth of data per day, this pales in comparison to the amount of data transmitted by the brain when moving a single finger. Accord- ing to Arto Nurmikko, Brown professor of engineering, “Of the billions of neu- rons in the human cortex, scientists have never directly measured more than 200 or so simultaneously.” While the promises of a brain-machine interface are fascinating, many of


the brain’s functions are still a mystery to modern science. We’ll have to rely on our five basic senses to figure them out. r


PUBLISHER’S NOTE


By Jacob Fattal Publisher


The Heat of August A


fter 34 years of of publishing U.S. Tech, it is still amazing how fast each year rushes by. Our August issue marks the end of summer and the be- ginning of fall, when the trade show season again picks up steam. This


month we cover NEPCON Asia, in sweltering Shenzhen, China, still a rapid- ly growing hub of electronics manufacturing and an economic dynamo. Next month, we will be covering the Battery Show, iMAPS, SMTA Inter-


national, and many other trade shows and events, and finalize our plans for next year. Our 2020 editorial and trade show calendar can be found on page 84 of this issue. This fall promises to be an exciting time for our industry. This year has


been largely about preparing for widespread 5G communications, which will enable a range of new technologies, including the data transfer necessary for faster, global wireless communication, autonomous driving, high-speed, low- power Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and many others. A new breed of electric vehicles (EV) are on the horizon, powered by a


kind of battery that uses the same silicon wafer manufacturing techniques common in the semiconductor industry. These batteries, due to the porosity of the wafers, increase the surface area of the entire battery system exponential- ly and can prevent the explosion and thermal runaway risks of lithium-ion batteries. This kind of innovation is what is driving many to believe that 2020 will be the tipping point for EV motors over the combustion engine. Other trends that will affect the industry next year include the ever-


growing use of 3D printing for odd-shaped and flexible circuitry, and for em- bedding circuits inside materials that typically have not been conductive. This should boost the wearable electronics market greatly, which has struggled to find much practical application beyond smart watches and niche medical de- vices. We can also expect to see more voice integration in both consumer and industrial electronics, as the algorithms that underpin these systems will con- tinue to gather mountains of data, eventually leading to some sort of function- al artificial intelligence (AI). A highlight of the trade show calendar every two years, productronica,


held in early November in Munich, will cap off the year. This massive, four- day exhibition is a staple of our industry and we expect to see a broad mix of new production introductions in the capital equipment space, as many compa- nies have held off introducing new systems earlier in the year. These next few


months involve a lot of globetrotting for U.S. Tech staff, to China and back, and on to Mexico, and finally Germany, before we close out 2019. Time flies, and so do we! r


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