VR Games Helping Stroke Patients

Noting Neuralink as an example.

Can mind-controlled VR games help stroke patients?   By Zoe Kleinman, Technology editor

A system which can translate human brain activity into actions without any physical movement is being developed by a neurotech firm called Cogitat.

When wearing a prototype headset, basic actions in virtual reality can be carried out by thinking about them.

So for example, in a game where a VR jet ski is controlled by handles, you move by thinking about it, rather than squeezing your hands.

Elon Musk's firm Neuralink is developing a similar concept.

It is called brain-computer interface and there are many neurotech companies exploring it.

One aim is that it could eventually allow people who have suffered a stroke, or have other brain injuries, to control phones or computers remotely.

Neuralink's method requires a chip being placed into the brain itself. The firm has so far only worked with animals, and has been criticised for their treatment. It has released videos it says demonstrate a monkey playing the video game Pong with its mind, and the brain activity of a pig with a chip implanted in its brain.

Cogitat is one of the firms developing a system which works on top of the head rather than inside it.

It could one day take the form of a headband worn with a VR headset. Some companies are already creating their own hardware but, as a university spin-off, Cogitat is concentrating only on the tech behind it.  .... ' 

Cognixion One, a Brain Interface with AR

Brought to my attention.    Updates to Cognixion.   More at the link. Let me know of your experience and I will report it here ....

CXN ONE

The World's First Brain Computer Interface with Augmented Reality

Wearable Speech™ Generating Device   ©2020 Cognixion, Patents Pending

Say Hello to Cognixion ONE​  ...  (link above) 

For too long, the assistive technology industry has relied on repurposed consumer electronics, often years behind the cutting edge of what is possible.

At Cognixion, we believe that every individual deserves a solution as unique as they are – and that it’s possible to build one tool for communication, access, and everything else life brings their way.

Enter Cognixion ONE. No more dangling wires. No more PC monitor blocking your view of the person you’re speaking with. No more leaving your voice and your control at home, or in the classroom; Cognixion ONE is a wearable window to the world, offering both speech and an integrated AI assistant for home automation control and other enrichment. 

Whether you use Cognixion ONE’s AR environment via head pointing, Brain-Computer Interface, or switch, you’ll see how it’s built from the ground up to reduce the lag between intention and outcome.

Think it. Say it. Do it.

Cognixion ONE - The world's first wearable brain computer Interface with AR | Product Hunt

Extending Abilities to the Most Vulnerable

Designed by neurologists and biosignal engineers in concert with Speech-Language Pathologists and a large group of users and professionals, Cognixion ONE comes out of the gate with integrated home automation AI and multiple context-aware predictive keyboards. We’re prepared to meet the needs of anyone with complex communication disorders including CP, ALS, and hundreds of other conditions exhaustively researched and tested by our team.

Almost anyone who has been reliant on switch or eye control access is an immediate candidate for Cognixion ONE, as well as many other conditions for which there was previously no good access method such as Locked-In Syndrome or hyperkinetic conditions causing too much movement for reliable eye tracking. Our durable design and optional accessory straps mean you can use Cognixion ONE with confidence all throughout your daily life.

Your Window to the World

Cognixion ONE is an entirely wireless, mobile solution that doesn’t just give you freedom to move – it gives you freedom to move the world. 

Direct integration with a popular AI assistant (tba) provides access to home automation, music, games, and more; you don’t need to own a hub, because it is a hub. 

Our speech generating software also displays text on the mirrored lens, so you can be understood even in loud environments – or disable sound and use text only for private conversations. 

A 4G cellular connection ensures you always have a direct line to your AI assistant and our other cloud services, all of which are completely secure and compliant with all international privacy laws.  ... '

Mind and Machine

Considering controls in context.  

When Mind Melds With Machine, Who's in Control?

By Wired, January 11, 2022

The last time I saw my friend James was at the townie bar near our old high school. He had been working in roofing for a few years, no longer a rail-thin teenager with lank hippie hair. I had just gotten back from a stint with the Peace Corps in Turkmenistan. We reminisced about the summer after our freshman year, when we were inseparable—adventuring in the creek that sliced through the woods, debating the merits of Batman versus the Crow, watching every movie in my father's bootlegged VHS collection. I had no idea what I wanted to do next. His future, on the other hand, was decided: He had recently joined the Navy and was starting boot camp the following week. He wanted to serve in Afghanistan.

James Raffetto trained for the next three years as a special-operations medic. He got married and, shortly after, was deployed to southern Afghanistan. About four months into his first tour, just after he had treated a local woman's sick daughter, he stepped on an improvised explosive device—an ingenious contraption triggered by a balsa-wood pressure plate, invisible to bomb detectors. He recalls finding himself face down, unable to right himself, screaming "No!"

His platoon mates asked him what to do. James directed them to tourniquet his limbs, inject him with morphine, and tell his wife, Emily, how much he loved her. He woke up a week later in a hospital in Maryland, missing both legs, his left arm, and three fingers on his right hand.

I was on the other side of the country by that point, working toward a PhD in neuroscience. We messaged a few times. He expressed how hard it was for him to accept help after years of fierce competence.

James' injury prompted me to attend a symposium on the emerging field of brain-computer interfaces—devices designed to read a person's neural activity and use it to drive a robotic prosthetic, speech synthesizer, or computer cursor.

Mind Melding with Machine, In Wired