What if it was possible to control the Apple Vision Pro with your brain?
If Synchron is to be believed, within a few years, it will be possible to control your Apple Vision Pro or Meta Quest 3 by doing nothing other than thinking. Brain/computer interfaces are certainly part of the future of technology, but besides Neuralink, few players are working on a similar service. Synchron is one of the few chosen, and in 2022, clinical trials began to determine whether it was possible to control a device using the brain, via an implant.
Synchron wants to allow control of a virtual reality headset by thought
At first, the company's goal was to enable control of an iPhone or iPad. And then, with the recent arrival of the Apple Vision Pro, Synchron focused on Apple's mixed reality headset. Today, the firm shares the results of its research: of the six patients with the implant, none presented a serious adverse event linked to the device (death or increase in disability). In short, the implanted device presented no major problems, and demonstrated positive results in capturing brain signals.
Named “COMMAND”, this technology is the very first to be approved for testing by the FDA as part of a permanent chip implantation providing a brain/computer interface. The difference between Synchron and the competition in the field lies in the fact that this implantation is carried out through a minor operation on the jugular vein, unlike other implants which require a major and sometimes dangerous operation.
In the long term, “COMMAND” will aim to allow people suffering from serious brain injuries to regain a certain level of motor and functional independence. Thus, all the patients studied by Synchron suffered from severe bilateral chronic paralysis of the upper limbs, which did not respond to therapeutic treatments. Once installed, the brain/computer interface then makes it possible to interpret the signals and transform them into actions such as moving a cursor or clicking, which in essence allows you to control a smartphone or virtual reality headset.
