Researchers develop thought-controlled computer cursor

BBC : Sensors placed on the outside of the human skull can pick up enough information from the brain beneath to direct, say, a cartoon car around a crude course on a computer screen. But the skull absorbs high-frequency signals that would allow finer, faster control. Now, Eric Leuthardt of Washington University in Saint Louis and his collaborators have shown that sensors placed directly on the surface of a person’s brain can be used to move a computer cursor with pure thought, as if the person were using a mouse. The people in the study were epilepsy patients who’d already had the electrocorticographical sensors implanted in their heads. Controlling the cursor entailed asking the patients to think of four vowel sounds. After recording the signals that corresponded to each imagined vowel, the researchers ran a control program that translated the signals into cursor motion.