Future Technology Allows User to Operate Drones With Their Minds

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DARPA has recently awarded a $20.4 million, four year contract, to Battelle, a nonprofit applied science and technology development company. The company was awarded the contract in order to test its futuristic BrainStorm technology. The technology utilizes thought in order to transmit signals between receivers installed in a helmet.

The technology works by injecting magnetic nanoparticles into the blood of the recipient. The particles are then steered into a specific section of the brain. Once there the particles will transmit the signals from the subject’s brain.

Bizjournals.com mentions that the research for the BrainStorm technology is based on Battelle’s NeuroLife technology, that translate signals emitted from brain cells in the motor cortex into electronic pulses that move muscles. The company have been tuning the technology over the course of three years with Ian Burkhart, a man paralyzed from the shoulders down due to an accident.

When Burkhart is connected to the system he can pinch his index finger and thumb, as well as pick up objects and pour liquids.

In order for the system to work Burkhart volunteered to have a chip implanted in his brain and a cable port in his skull. The implants control signals that are transmitted to electrodes in a sleeve on his right arm, allowing him to use the arm.

The technology has several potential military applications. DARPA wants the technology to be used by pilots and soldiers that could control with their minds UAVs and UGVs.

DARPA is also interested in making the technology accessible without the need for any surgeries.

The research into the system will last at least four years. Military deployment will take much longer. The system would need to undergo years of testing, bureaucratic regulations and ethics committees before we see anything like this on the field.

DARPA has also awarded contracts to five other firms working on developing different methods of brain wave transmission.