New York-based Synchron, a brain-computer interface (BCI) company, has released a video showing an ALS patient using an iPad controlled entirely by thought in what it says is the "first-ever public demonstration" of the technology.
Mark Jackson is a patient battling ALS who was part of Synchron's first FDA-approved clinical trial dubbed COMMAND.
In 2023, he was implanted with the Stentrode, which is an endovascular electrode array designed to record or stimulate one's brain from inside the blood vessels.
The technology allows one's thoughts to be translated into digital actions, and implantation can be done without performing open brain surgery.
The BCI allows Jackson to navigate an iPad home screen, compose text and open apps using his thoughts alone, without needing to use his voice, hands or eyes.
The BCI system works with Apple's built-in accessibility features, including Switch Control, which allows users to navigate a device, perform actions or select items by assigning a specific action to each switch or, in Jackson's case, a distinct thought.
"People like Mark, he can't move his hands, but he can still think about doing those movements," Peter Yoo, senior director of neuroscience and algorithms at Synchron, said in a video.
"That means his brain is still sending those signals down to his body. So, using brain-computer interfaces, we can capture that signal, and then we can translate it through a machine learning model into a digital device control."
Yoo says the technology expands the potential to interact with and control digital devices that many already use, and that, in turn, allows these devices to become readily accessible to paralyzed individuals.
"In the future, so long as you can control a BCI, that means you can control any digital device. This is a big step toward the future where brain-computer interfaces become ubiquitous for digital device control. It means it opens up the ecosystem, it means more options for our users, and the usability skyrockets from this point on," Yoo said.
THE LARGER TREND
Apple released its BCI Human Interface Device (BCI HID) standard, which allows all brain-computer interfaces to communicate and interact with computers. It works over Bluetooth and does not require the users to perform any physical movements.
Synchron said Jackson is the first person in the world to control an iPad through BCI HID.
In May, Synchron announced it would be the first BCI company to reach native integration with Apple's BCI HID profile.
Apple's profile recognizes neural interfaces as a native input category, and the two companies said their partnership would allow for voice-free and hands-free digital access to individuals with motor impairment, including not only ALS, but stroke and spinal cord injury.
In January, Synchron announced that it leveraged the NVIDIA Holoscan platform to advance a next-generation implantable BCI in two domains.
First, to enhance real-time edge AI capabilities for on-device neural processing, improve signal processing and multi-AI inference technology. Second, to explore the development of an innovative foundation model for brain inference.
In 2022, Synchron secured an oversubscribed $75 million Series C funding round, bringing its total raise at the time to $145 million. A year before, the company scored $40 million in Series B funding.
Another brain-computer interface company is Elon Musk's Neuralink, which in May announced it had successfully implanted its BCI into Brad Smith, an ALS patient who is completely non-verbal.
Smith released a video on X about his experience with Neuralink and how it works. The video is narrated using an AI-generated replica of Smith's voice cloned from past recordings, and Smith uses the BCI to control the mouse on his MacBook Pro to perform the narration.
