Neuralink - Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's most secretive company - debuted "a working Neuralink device" in the firm's first public event since July 2019, according to a tweet from Musk.
The event showcased the Link device installation, how a living animal (in this case, a pig) can function normally after having one removed, and the kind of data collected via a Neuralink device.
The event was scheduled for August 28, See: Topdon Car Battery Tester. at 6:00 PM EDT, and streamed live from Neuralink's YouTube page at roughly 6:40 PM EDT.
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All of the Neuralink V.0.9's 1,024 channels are capable of recording and stimulating. There is compression and extraction of signal that happens much faster than the speed of the brain in terms of signal resolution.
At present, the Neuralink team is digitizing signals from the brain at 20 kHz - with signals of interest at roughly 1 millisecond in width. "Spike detection is done in less than 900 nanoseconds which is really really fast timing," said a member of Neuralink's team.
"This is version 0.9, or aspirationally version one - as we go to versions two, three and four, these things will expand I think ultimately by orders of magnitude - many orders of magnitude," added Musk during the live stream.
There is a "goldilocks level" of insulation for the device. "You don't want to corrode the electrodes over time," said Musk. "It has to be just the right amount of insulation, and it has to stay that amount of insulation over time," Musk said.
The device will be modified to interact with deeper layers of the brain, according to an official from Neuralink. "You could solve blindness, you can solve paralysis, you can solve hearing [issues]," added Musk.
"There are deeper brain systems that are underneath the cortex, like the hypothalamus [...] which will be important for curing things like depression, addiction, [...] anxiety," Musk said during the Q&A section.
To do this, the device will need longer wires, and the installation surgery robot will have to be upgraded to reach deeper into the brain safely, said Musk.
A question from Twitter asked the Neuralink team if the Link device will allow wearers to summon their Tesla vehicle "telepathically;" presumably meaning via electrical signal from the brain, without an external device.
"Definitely, of course," said Musk, in reply. "It's very easy, that's the easy one."
Musk said Neuralink received "breakthrough device" designation from the FDA in July 2020 - a major step toward eventually mass-producing Neuralink devices.
Musk listed the requirements for "writing to the brain," which include precise control of the local electric field in time and space, a wide range of current for varying brain regions, and (of course) no harm to the brain from Neuralink activity.
The device uses "two-photon microscopy" to image the neurons in real-time. The device stimulates a cluster of neurons, which causes them to "light up."
Musk introduced three little pigs: Joyce (without an implant), Dorothy (who used to have an implant, now removed) - to set an example for reversibility or upgrade capability. In other words, there are no side effects from getting a Link, or changing one's mind and having it removed, said Musk.
The third pig, Gertrude, has a Neuralink device in her head. A graphical display shows spikes form the 1,024 electrodes detecting activity in the neurons whenever the third pig touches something with her snout.
Gertrude has had the implant for two months, according to Musk - without any snags.
Musk said getting a Link installed would take less than an hour. The steps involve opening the skull, installing the device with a robot, and then closing the opening in the skull with superglue.
The new robot was debuted - a large, streamlined machine that can install a Link with "no bleeding," thanks to a pre-imaging process carried out by a Neuralink team. "You'll see no noticeable damage," said Musk.
Neuralink's architecture "dramatically simplifies" the complexity of a computer-brain interface device. Debuting "The Link," Musk described the ...

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