The 3D-printed helmet that can read your mind. Could it change the world?

By Mike Riggs
Fields
Neuroscience
Share

If the farthest frontier of human exploration is outer space, the closest one is inside our skulls. And OpenBCI–that’s short for brain-computer interface–is your headspace sherpa.

Founded by Conor Russomanno and Joel Murphy, OpenBCI developed an open-source interface for translating brain, muscle, and heart activity. With their device, you can not only see what’s happening inside your head and your heart, you can then use that activity to influence the rest of the world outside your body.

10 years from now, we will be a different species. We will still be humans, but we’ll be different humans than we are today. – Conor Russomanno

The potential applications for BCI are huge. Already, the technology has been used to play video games hands-free, control bionic tech, and assess whether comatose patients who can’t move their bodies are nevertheless experiencing conscious thoughts.

In the near future, BCI could vastly enhance our ability to understand technology–and ourselves.

Related
A colorful, textured 3D AI brain model centered on a grid background with elliptical lines in black and blue encircling it.
Neurodiversity
Why a neurodivergent team will be a golden asset in the AI workplace
Since AI is chained to linear reasoning, workplaces that embrace it will do well to have neurodivergent colleagues who reason more creatively.
Maureen Dunne
A man in a suit stands next to a robotic arm with computer-brain interfaces on a stage under blue lighting.
Big Tech
In a future with brain-computer interfaces like Elon Musk’s Neuralink, we may need to rethink freedom of thought
In a future with more “mind reading,” thanks to computer-brain interfaces, we may need to rethink freedom of thought.
Parker Crutchfield
A close up of an older person's hands. One hand is rubbing the wrist of the other, as if to relieve pain
Medicine
Old drug appears to halt progression of Parkinson’s motor symptoms
A GLP-1 agonist used to treat diabetes appeared to halt the progression of Parkinson’s symptoms in a phase 2 trial.
Kristin Houser
Two men standing near a computer monitor, with one man wearing an EEG cap and pointing at the screen and the other looking at him
Brain
“Universal” BCI lets anyone play games with their minds
A specially trained “decoder” slashes the time it takes a brain-computer interface (BCI) to read a user’s mind.
Kristin Houser
Two people standing close together, united by a surge of oxytocin, one wearing a white top and the other in a red top, against a clear blue sky.
Neuroscience
Oxytocin’s effects aren’t just about love
At last, neuroscientists are learning how the hormone shapes social behaviors such as pair-bonding and parental care. It’s more complicated than they thought.
Bob Holmes | Knowable Magazine
Up Next
No related content in the preview
Subscribe to Freethink for more great stories 
Subscription Center