[ad_1]
Elon Musk’s company Neuralink has again made headlines. The second person in whose brain the company had implanted a chip is now using it to design 3D objects and play the popular video game Counter-Strike 2. The person’s name is Alex. Instead of the traditional controller joystick, Alex is now able to control the game with just his thoughts. This is an amazing experience not only for him but for the world. Neuralink is working towards making its interface even better and Elon Musk believes that millions of people will benefit from this revolutionary technology in the coming decade.
Neuralink has also reported that its brain implant worked effectively in the patient and he did not face problems like ‘thread retraction’ experienced by the first patient Noland Arbaugh. Let us tell you that Elon Musk is also known as Iron Man in the business world for his entrepreneurship.
“Alex also loves playing first-person shooter games, which typically require multiple inputs, including two separate joysticks (one for aiming and one for movement) and several buttons,” Neuralink said in its blog post.
Earlier, Alex used to play these games using an assistive device called Quadstick. It is a mouth-operated joystick with a sip-and-puff pressure sensor and a lip position sensor for clicking. Let us tell you that Alex is a former automotive technician who became paralyzed due to a spinal cord injury. This chip is designed in such a way that paralyzed patients can use digital devices only by thinking.
The limitation of this controller was that it only had one joystick, which only gave Alex the option of movement or aiming at a time. To switch from movement to aiming, he would have to let go of one joystick and sip or puff into a different straw to change its functionality.
What does Alex with a chip in his brain have to say?
“Just running becomes a lot more fun because I can look sideways and I don’t have to move the Quadstick left or right … I just think where to look and it goes where I want it to. It’s crazy,” said Alex, a participant in the company’s prime study.
Neuralink also said it is developing new features for its brain-computer interface, Link. Currently, Link allows users to control the computer’s cursor. In the future, it aims to allow users to control multiple devices simultaneously and write faster with their thoughts.
Update on the second Neuralink device in humans.
If all goes well, hundreds of people will be using Neuralinks within a few years, maybe thousands of people within 5 years, millions of people within 10 years, …
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 22, 2024
[ad_2]
