Sick Man Controls Alexa With Brain Implant

As the months go by, news about progress in the use of brain implants keeps coming. Today, Synchron announced the world's first use of Amazon's voice assistant, Alexa, through thought.

A possible parade against ALS

Mark, a 64-year-old American suffering from ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative disease that causes progressive paralysis of the entire skeletal musculature), was able to control his smart home with his brain after tapping on the Alexa feature on his Amazon Fire tablet. More precisely, the man was able to choose personalized tiles that perform pre-set Alexa actions (light management, making video calls, playing content, etc.).

Synchron’s brain-computer interface (BCI) is implanted into the blood vessel on the surface of the brain’s motor cortex via the jugular vein, using a minimally invasive endovascular procedure. Once implanted, it is designed to sense and wirelessly transmit motor intent out of the brain.

The participant in this trial seems in any case satisfied with the result: “Being able to manage important aspects of my environment and control access to entertainment gives me back the independence I've been losing.“

A positive step forward for patients

Synchron is also satisfied with this progress: “We are excited to use our ICM to access the capabilities of Alexa, so patients can interact with devices at home voice-free and hands-free, using only their thoughts, to address a critical unmet need for millions of people with mobility and speech impairments.“

It now remains to be hoped that this solution will become more widespread and will provide more satisfactory results than those provided by Alexa by voice…