Monkey Types 12 Words per Minute With Brain-to-Keyboard Communication
“To be or not to be. That is the question.” That is also the text that Monkey J typed out using a brain implant to control a computer cursor.
To be clear, the monkey didn’t know it was copying Shakespeare, and it had no deep thoughts about Hamlet’s famous monologue. Monkey J and its colleague, Monkey L, were both trained to use their neural implants to move a cursor over a computer screen, hitting circles as they turned green. Stanford University researchers placed letters on those targets to simulate the typing task. So to tap out the line from Hamlet, first the “T” circle was illuminated, then the “O,” and so on.
What was the point of this exercise? Was it simply an excuse to let journalists trot out the “infinite monkey theorem”? Because here we go: This probability theorem states that if you give a monkey a typewriter and infinite time, its random keystrokes will eventually produce the complete works of Shakespeare. (If you’d rather goof off than read about science, please enjoy these excellent cartoons.)
No, the bioengineers had a more practical motivation. By simulating this typing task, they demonstrated that their brain-computer interface could greatly benefit people who can’t communicate otherwise. That category includes people in the late stages of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, which leaves the mind intact but gradually paralyzes the body, including the mouth and other face muscles.
This experiment set a new record for typing-by-mind, with one monkey tapping out 12 words per minute. “To our knowledge, this is the highest communication level ever achieved,” says Paul Nuyujukian, a researcher at Stanford’s Neural Prosthetics Translational Lab. Nuyujukian is coauthor of the paper describing this research, published today in Proceedings of the IEEE.
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