Hardware would play a very important role in BCI. The hardware involved would have to include a mini computer small enough to fit inside the skull, and it would probably have to include some kind of sensor to make it all work. It is hard to tell how powerful the computer would have to be. Its function would simply be to take in information from the brain and send it wirelessly to an external computer.
The external computer would have to be powerful enough to process all the commands the brain transmits. This would more than likely take a very fast processor and a lot of memory to keep up. This external computer would also have to be small enough to fit in a person's pocket or purse. None of the specifics are really known, because we do not know how much information really needs to be processed; therefore much of this blog post is conceptual.
By the time BCI becomes possible, computer technology may be advanced enough to fit both computers into one unit inside the skull. If this is true, the single computer would probably have to be extremely powerful, but by this time it probably would not be an issue. The one thing this computer must include, and this is very important, are PS/2 ports. This computer would obviously not be functional without them.
Very interesting post. I think BCI is something that will inevitably be coming down the pipeline in the years to come. Nice job tying in your BCI idea to lecture content.
ReplyDeleteI would like to know more about how BCI will impact hardware utilization and hardware resource consumption. If individuals have BCI components physically on them (or in them), are they transmitting to a backend server (or set of servers) which is handling the majority of the processing, or is the BCI chip doing the majority of the processing?
I was thinking the simplest way to go about hardware utilization is to limit the amount of stress on the actual device inside the person's head. The little device's main functions are simply to send and receive raw information. Technology is getting smaller, but I do not think we are the point where we can stick an entire personal computer inside a tiny chip planted on a person's brain.
ReplyDeleteThe device would more than likely wirelessly send data to a slightly larger computer in a person's pocket (or maybe even a regular cell phone). Cell phones can handle everything from there.