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Resource List: 2007 Timeline: Brain <=> Machine Interface
 Chronicling and cataloguing some of the greater breakthroughs in Brain-Computer interfaces to occur in 2007.
Such interfaces allow a direct connection between the mind and a computer system, or, in other words, controlling computers by thought and bypassing the physical form.
January: Rerouting Brain Circuits with Implanted Chips
A monkey-implanted prosthetic created by the University of Washington, records signals from one part of the brain, and transmitted them to another area, reshaping all neural connections along the route. Thus, for the first time, the prospect of integrating organic and inorganic components into the same brain, and have them work as a single unit, was demonstrated.
March: Brain Scans Read Intentions
A study by John-Dylan Haynes at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany, proved conclusively that it is possible to read an individual?s intentions before they act by monitoring the activity in their brain.
March: Cyberkinetics' Patent for Andara Therapy Approved
CyberKinetics Inc. created a method of reattaching spinal cord nerves, reliable enough to be worthy of patenting.
April: OCZ Develop Neural-Controlled Brain Mouse
OCZ Technologies first announced development of a mouse, designed to work with a PC; entirely controlled by brainwave input.
April: Emotiv Touts Technology that Reads Gamers' Minds
San Francisco-based Emotiv Systems started pushing for a headset they had created, to interface loosely between a computer and 100 million or so neurons, in order to detect general patterns well enough to control video games. Emotiv modified existing Electroencephalogram (EEG) technology, which can do rough measurements of electrical activity in the brain to perform this feat.
April: Memory Implants Make Large Strides
A new brain implant circuit appeared, capable of simulating the behaviour, structure, and interconnectivity of roughly 12,000 neurons. The chip is intended to take commands from the brain, and then send commands back. In essence, being a memory storage unit.
May: Cyberkinetics' BrainGate Fidelity Progress Announcement
"We have made significant advances in optimizing the brain signals that are detected and interpreted by the BrainGate System technology," stated Dr. Donoghue, Cyberkinetics' Chief Scientific Officer stated at the May American Academy of Neurology (AAN) conference.
May: Computer chips designed to mimic how the brain works
The discipline of neuromorphing, or the creation of complicated electronic circuits meant to model the behaviour of neural circuits is born. The first chip born of this study, based on a layer of the hippocampus known as CA3, attempts to accurately mimic natural formation of memory engrams, as opposed to using its own internal sttorage mechanisms and just sending data back out, as in the previous chip.
May: Revolutionizing Prosthetics 2009 Team Develop Prosthetic that talks to the Brain
The first prototype of a fully integrated prosthetic arm that can be controlled naturally, including the provision of sensory feedback, was annnounced by an international team of researchers. During clinical evaluation of the limb at RIC, Jesse Sullivan, a patient of Dr. Kuiken, demon-strated substantial improvements in functional testing, such as the ability to reposition his thumb for different grips, remove a credit card from a pocket, stack cups while controlling his grip force using sensory feedback verses vision, and to walk using the free swing mode of the limb for a more natural gait.
May: Pentagon to Merge Next-Gen Binoculars With Soldiers' Brains
Luke's Binoculars (after the high-tech binoculars Luke Skywalker uses in Star Wars), or more formally, the Cognitive Technology Threat Warning System (CTTWS) is intended to utilise a pair of extremely high zoom capacity binoculars, 10x the zoom of any pair available today, that are directly connected to an alerting system that is itself hardwired directly into the wearer's prefrontal cortex.
July: Remote control brains: a neuroscience revolution
In a laboratory the University of Frankfurt, in Germany, a tiny worm danced to flashes of light. A flash of yellow and it darted forward. A flash of blue and it jerked back. Yellow, forward, blue, back - right on cue every time.
The worm is a natural creature, no wiring or electronics, but flesh and blood. It is in the vanguard of a revolution in brain science, a technology that allows scientists to turn individual brain cells on and off at will.
August: Data stored in live neurons
For the first time, artificial information was implanted into and stored in live neurons. Previous work attempted to imprint new patterns by electrically stimulating individual cells. The problem is, such attempts overwrite the neuron?s original firing pattern, destroying the circuits it has formed with other neurons around it, and effectively breaking down network communication.
August: Miniature Implanted Devices Could Treat Epilepsy
Purdue University researchers have developed new miniature devices designed to be implanted in the brain to predict and prevent epileptic seizures. A tiny transmitter three times the width of a human hair is designed to be implanted below the scalp to detect the signs of an epileptic seizure before it occurs.
September: Thinking of words can guide your wheelchair
US firm Ambient demonstrated a motorised wheelchair that moves when the operator thinks of particular words. The wheelchair works by intercepting signals sent from their brain to their voice box, even when no sound is actually produced.
October: Unifying Algorithm to standardise All Approaches to Neuroprosthetics
Lakshminarayan "Ram" Srinivasan, postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Nervous System Repair at Massachusetts General Hospital and a medical student in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, created a new algorithm which has profound implications for brain prosthetics.
He believes he has produced a unifying mathematical algorithm which takes all the disparate approaches taken to date, by different research groups creating neural prosthetic devices in animals or humans, and is applicable, no matter what measurement technique is used.
December: Researchers can read thoughts to decipher what a person is actually seeing
Following research by University of Leicester Department of Engineering, showing that neurons in the human brain respond in an abstract manner to particular individuals or objects, additional research discovered that, from the firing of this type of neuron, they can tell what a person is actually seeing.
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