In this day and age, anything involving technology seems possible. Scientists are constantly discovering new theories in order to further their knowledge of human interaction and technology. One of the most innovative machines of the decade is mind boggling, literally. Neuroscientists who study the inner workings of the brain's major functions have recently designed a machine which allows people to type letters with their minds. Telekinesis has never seemed so obtainable. Scientists believe that this interface will enable a person to communicate with thoughts rather than actual words on a screen. Neurologist Jerry Shih from Jacksonville Florida wanted to test the machine on patients who suffered from epilepsy in order to see how their brain would interpret the images of letters.
In order for this machine to function properly, electrodes are placed directly onto a patient's brain which transmit the signal of imaged letters. Patients of the experiment were positioned in front of a 6 by 6 grid that contained a letter inside each square. The doctors asked the patients to focus on a letter which then transferred into a computer and indiciated whether or not the brain stimulated a response. The neurologists soon made the connection that when a patient studied the letter on the grid, it showed on the computer. The major component of this experiment is the brain waves. Doctors would need to perform a craniotomy which involves a surgical cut into the skull to reach the surface of the brain. The collective goal of the scientists is for "tele-technology" communication to be plausible. "Our goal is to find a way to effectively and consistently use a patient's brain waves to perform certain tasks." Shih explains.
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