iBrain Will Hack Into Stephen Hawking's Brain With Ease

“How I wish I could read people’s minds…” I’m sure this thought would have crossed most of your minds. Now, that is so close to realization, thanks to the efforts of the scientists at Stanford, led by Dr. Phillip Low. The tool they have developed is called iBrain. They have been working in unison with renowned scientist Stephen Hawking. iBrain is a simple black headband that contains neurotransmitters. It takes the brainwaves and communicates it onto a computer. Low has been trying to access his brainwaves directly using this device.

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Hawking, who is affected by the motor neuron disease and lost speech almost 30 years ago, has been using a computer to communicate. Recently Hawking’s condition has deteriorated as the muscles of his hands got dysfunctional. This made it difficult for him to press the key of the voice machine he was using to communicate till now. Now, he has to operate a "cheek switch", which means it takes several minutes for a message to be generated.

Now, if he is fitted with iBrain, it will become easier for the scientists to “bypass the body”, in short, it will help the scientists to hack his mind. Thus, it will make it easier for him to communicate with others. Hawking has already tried this technology. Last summer, Low went all the way to England to meet him and fitted him with the device. He started the experiment with the aim to see if it was possible to translate his thoughts to words, through signals. He asked Hawking to use as much of his brain power as he could to imagine he was scrunching his hand into a ball. Low noticed a change in the signal. The hope is that the technology becomes more advanced then it could recognize more sophisticated brain activity and turn it into words.

Low and team will unveil the device at a conference in Cambridge next month and may demonstrate the technology on Hawking. It is not about just mind reading, the scientists claim that the device has potential medical applications like helping doctors prescribe the correct levels of medication based on a person's brainwave responses, to treat sleep disorders, depression and even autism.

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