Brain implant lets paralyzed people turn thoughts into text

Participants sent texts, streamed music and browsed the web on unmodified devices.

Three people paralyzed from the neck down have been able to use unmodified computer tablets to text friends, browse the internet and stream music, thanks to an electrode array system called BrainGate2. The findings could have a major impact on the lives of those affected by neurologic disease, injury, or limb loss.

The system uses an array of micro-electrodes implanted into the brain which decode, in real time, the neural signals associated with the intention to move a limb. The three people involved in the trial had electrode grids implanted over part of their motor cortex – the area of the brain that helps control movement – which picked up neural activity indicating they were thinking about moving a cursor on the screen. Those patterns were then sent to a virtual mouse that was wirelessly paired to the tablet.

Using only their intentions, the participants were able to perform a range of common digital tasks including web browsing and sending email. One participant ordered groceries online and played a digital piano. "The tablet became second nature to me, very intuitive," she told the researchers when asked about her experience, according to the study. The system even allowed two of the participants to chat with each other in real time.

Of course, brain-computer interface technology has been around for a few years now. What's remarkable about this study, though, is that BrainGate2 allows users to navigate completely unmodified, off-the-shelf devices, with no special features or modifications. And a few basic tweaks could make the system even more accessible to users.

According to the study report, "Participants navigated the user interface comfortably despite not having access to all of the gestures commonly used on a tablet (e.g., click and drag, multitouch). This precluded certain functions such as scrolling up and down on the tablet web browser. Some of these limitations would have been overcome by enabling accessibility features found in the Android OS or third-party programs. Additionally, modifying the Android OS keyboard layout as we have done in prior reports would have likely increased typing rates."

Nonetheless, the findings demonstrate how communication, mobility and independence can be partially restored to those with otherwise limited control over their environment, and without the need for expensive or specialist equipment – a major development that will have a hugely positive impact on the lives of people around the world.

https://www.engadget.com/2018/11/23/brain-implant-lets-paralyzed-people-turn-thoughts-into-text/

I could see tech like this being used for memetic warfare soon, if not already.

>>4011522

I'm sure he had other reasons than just tabloid celebrity gossip to get rid of that stuff.

Why preserve it in the ocean when burning would have ensured erasure?

pic not related

>>4011543

He had less say because Nicholas had full run of the place with his own private tunnel.

If autists can find and take down Shia Lebruh's Flag, they can unearth this concrete casket full of this man's skeletons.

>>4011660

Dumped from a boat or plane into the ocean just to be retrieved and dumped here for us.

Very plausible.

>>4011710

Haha, I did that too. Sought out a purely evil place. Was very close to paying dearly, but a sasquatch saved the day.

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Global warming may push millions of Americans away from the coast, and the U.S. isn’t prepared for the consequences of such a mass migration, scientists from across the federal government warned on Friday.

“Sea level rise might reshape the U.S. population distribution,” the scientists wrote in a sweeping report on climate change. “The potential need for millions of people and billions of dollars of coastal infrastructure to be relocated in the future creates challenging legal, financial, and equity issues that have not yet been addressed.”

The warning comes in the latest edition of the National Climate Assessment, a compendium of research about the state of climate change released every four years by scientists and other experts from across federal agencies. The assessment finds that climate change continues to outpace efforts to combat it or to adapt to its effects.

The report comes at a time of worsening natural disasters like hurricanes and fires in the U.S., which exceeded a record $300 billion in costs in 2017. Those incidents have highlighted the exposure of vulnerable communities; in October, Brock Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, excoriated coastal communities and states for not doing more to protect their residents from hurricanes.

The prospect and consequences of large-scale migration receive more attention this year than in past editions of the report. In 2014, for example, the section on the Northeast U.S. made no mention of people being forced to move. In the version released on Friday, migration was a large focus.

“Coastal states such as Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York are anticipated to see large outflows of migrants, a pattern that would stress regional locations further inland,” the authors write. “City leaders hope to avoid forced migration of highly vulnerable populations and the loss of historical and cultural resources.”

Yet those movements are all but certain to take place, not just in the Northeast but around the country. “In all but the very lowest sea level rise projections, retreat will become an unavoidable option in some areas of the U.S. coastline,” the authors wrote.

The report’s section on coastal states is even more explicit about the social, legal and economic challenges posed by the movement of large numbers of people. “Communities face difficult questions about determining who will pay for current impacts and future adaptation and mitigation strategies and if, how, or when to relocate,” the report warns.

The decision about when and how to flee the effects of climate change depends on emotional factors as well.

“Coastal communities have ties to their specific land and to each other, as is the case from the bayous of Louisiana, to the beaches of New Jersey, to the sea islands of South Carolina and Georgia,” according to the report. “These ties can impede people’s ability and willingness to move away from impacted areas.”

The federal government has haltingly begun preparing to move whole communities from the coast. In 2016, the Obama administration gave $48 million to Louisiana to move a small village inland. The administration also tried to establish an interagency working group to develop policies to support “managed retreat” from the coast. After Donald Trump became president, the group stopped meeting.

While the timing and speed of climate migration is uncertain, the authors warn that this much is clear: The parts of the country most exposed to climate change haven’t put enough thought or money into preparing for it. They note that coastal communities have been slow to look at preventing development in risky areas, or retreating from those areas.

“The scale of adaptation implementation for some effects and locations seems incommensurate with the projected scale of climate threats,” the authors wrote in the report.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-23/climate-may-force-millions-to-move-and-u-s-isn-t-ready-report

I usually detest using BBerg for a sauce, but this is one of those single source stories. I believe those are used mostly to hide the truth in plain sight among a haystack of other distractions.

>>4011845

I was seeing it as not a Coyote, but a construction worker that crosses daily to make $23 dollars an hour.

He's punching that climber for job security.

>>4011874

Literally. The open sewer drains out into a field. After it dries, the workers gather it up and use it to fertilize all of the fruit fields.