University of Wits in Johannesburg directly connected a human brain to the Internet for the first time. This is surprising, knowing that the US government has been trying for a number of years for similar technology. So what did they actually do? What does it mean that they connected a brain to the Internet?
According to their press release, the team of neuroscientists and engineers used an electroencephalogram - a device that detects electrical signals in the brain - to convey neurological activity to a highly resonant Raspberry Pi, a low-cost minicomputer. This has passed the data to a program that runs on a website that anyone can see at any time.
Therefore, it is not exactly that, via this webpage, you can see what a person thinks. But you can observe its neural activity. To be fair, it's a first step in this world, and it's really amazing.
"We are looking for interactivity between the user and his brain so that the person can stimulate and see an answer," says Adam Pantanowitz, project coordinator and professor of electrical engineering.
But the thing is not there. Adam says that "brainstorming (as this technique has been dubbed) can be improved to categorize records via a mobile application that will provide data for an automatic learning algorithm," meaning that "in the future, we will be able to relay information in both directions, inside and outside the brain. "
So if programming continues to advance, you can send electrical signals - perhaps in the form of data - to a person's brain. This is a long way since the brain is very different from that of a digital computer: computers use binary signals, meaning that the information is represented as zeros. The human brain has several billion bioelectrochemical transmissions linked to thoughts and actions. The difference is clear.