By simply imagining the movements of your hand while writing, text will appear on a computer screen promptly.

It may sound like science fiction: writing with your brain. But the reality is getting closer. For several years now, scientists have been investigating whether it is possible to allow people with disabilities to communicate with their thoughts. And with the help of a new smart technology, this can now be done even faster.

Write with your brain

As mentioned, scientists have been looking for ways to get people to write with their brains for some time now. For example, subjects in previous studies were asked to point their minds at certain letters on a virtual keyboard. And with success. Participants managed to get 40 characters per minute on a computer screen. A real record.

Faster

Although that is already an impressive achievement, researchers are not yet satisfied. “We wanted to find new ways to help people communicate faster,” explains researcher Frank Willett. And so they went in a new study looking for opportunities. For example, could you do it even faster by imagining the movements your hand makes while writing?

Experiment

The researchers designed a new smart system and decided to test it in an experiment. The subject in the experiment was a 65-year-old man who is paralyzed from the neck down. Two small electrodes were then implanted in his brain, in the part associated with the movements of his right hand. While the man imagined he was writing, these implanted sensors picked up the corresponding brain signals. And using those signals, text was then generated on a computer screen.

The 65-year-old man made these letters appear on a computer screen, simply by imagining the movements of his hand as he wrote the letters on paper. Image: BrainGate.org

So by simply thinking about the movements involved in writing by hand, the man managed to get text on a computer screen. And that at unprecedented speed. For example, he was able to answer questions at a pace comparable to someone of the same age typing on a smartphone.

New record

In the end, the man managed to make text appear on a computer screen at a record-breaking speed of 90 characters per minute. This more than doubles the old record. “The system is so fast because each letter evokes a very distinctive pattern of activity,” Willett says. “This makes it relatively easy for an algorithm to distinguish the letters from each other.”

Paralysed

The research team is hopeful that a similar technology could one day offer a solution for people who are completely paralyzed. It means that thanks to smart systems they may be able to ‘talk’ again. “Our main mission is to help people with severe speech or motor disabilities communicate,” said researcher Leigh Hochberg. “And the fast, accurate neural decoding of handwriting marks an exciting new chapter in the development of useful neurotechnologies.”

The research shows that writing with the brain is no longer a thing of the future. It’s possible. And that offers hope to countless people with disabilities. The researchers are therefore very grateful to the test subjects who signed up for the experiments. “They’re great,” Hochberg says. “It is their pioneering spirit that not only enables us to gain new insights into human brain function, but leads to the creation of systems that will help other people with paralysis.”