Intel wants to Plant Chips in Head by 2020

Probably you have already seen one of those Geeky ads by Intel. Intel geeks often do something strange all the time. Those ads ain’t vague, Intel wants us to know that what they are researching on, and what they can make possible in the near future.

As per the latest publication Intel’s Pittsburgh lab aims to develop brain implants that can control all sorts of gadgets directly via brain waves by 2020. The purpose is to eliminate and out-date the usage of keyboard and mouse. Instead, you will use your brain waves to  control your computer, says Intel Corp. researchers. So what exactly they mean is, users will be able to open documents and surf the Web using nothing more than their brain waves.

“I think human beings are remarkable adaptive,” said Andrew Chien, vice president of research and director of future technologies research at Intel Labs. “If you told people 20 years ago that they would be carrying computers all the time, they would have said, ‘I don’t want that. I don’t need that.’ Now you can’t get them to stop carrying devices. There are a lot of things that have to be done first but I think implanting chips into human brains is well within the scope of possibility.”

“We’re trying to prove you can do interesting things with brain waves,” said Pomerleau. “Eventually people may be willing to be more committed … to brain implants. Imagine being able to surf the Web with the power of your thoughts.”

To get to that point, Intel is heavily researching on decoding human brain activity.

The team has used Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRI) machines to determine that blood flow changes in specific areas of the brain based on what word or image someone is thinking of. People tend to show the same brain patterns for similar thoughts.

For instance, if two people think of the image of a bear or hear the word bear or even hear a bear growl, a neuroimage would show similar brain activity. Basically, there are standard patterns that show up in the brain for different words or images.

Human brain is a big processing powerhouse, once they decode the signals, they may be able to achieve a fasater and better supercomputers, like human brain.

Of couse, there’s nothing to be scared of, they won’t be planting chips in your brain against your will. Researchers expect that consumers will want the freedom they will gain by using the implant.

What do you think, would you get one and become a cyborg?