Holographic Neural Interfaces for Augmented Cognitive Systems

Frontiers in Neuroscience, 2009

Invasive and non-invasive brain machine interface research is a fast growing field, but a series of important challenges will have to be met to bring this to a level that will significantly impact patients. An increasing number of neurologists, neurosurgeon, neuroscientists, theoreticians and computer engineers have become interested in the field, and their work gives hope for significant breakthroughs. The first challenge we face is in the realm of socio-economics. It is essential to have a worldwide network of collaborations and information exchange between all disciplines, including allocation of much larger resources for the task. Mankind needs to learn how to combine the natural tendencies of individuals for personal achievements with the fact that we humans are social animals that made the best by synergistic social interactions and associations to larger teams, tribes and nations. The challenge is to create a worldwide feeling of a united mission. In this sense, we should adopt the brain strategy; none of us humans feel like "a bunch of neurons". Yet, our brains, which make us what we are, are a collection of billions of cells that "know" how to interact and generate intelligence, emotions and creativity. This is in fact a great challenge for the world population in all aspects of science and society.

Information

Human–robot collaboration (HRC) is a new and challenging discipline that plays a key role in Industry 4.0. Digital transformation of industrial plants aims to introduce flexible production lines able to adapt to different products quickly. In this scenario, HRC can be a booster to support flexible manufacturing, thus introducing new interaction paradigms between humans and machines. Augmented reality (AR) can convey much important information to users: for instance, information related to the status and the intention of the robot/machine the user is collaborating with. On the other hand, traditional input interfaces based on physical devices, gestures, and voice might be precluded in industrial environments. Brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) can be profitably used with AR devices to provide technicians solutions to effectively collaborate with robots. This paper introduces a novel BCI–AR user interface based on the NextMind and the Microsoft Hololens 2. Compared to traditional BCI in...

Human Brain/Cloud Interface, 2019

The Internet comprises a decentralized global system that serves humanity’s collective effort to generate, process, and store data, most of which is handled by the rapidly expanding cloud. A stable, secure, real-time system may allow for interfacing the cloud with the human brain. One promising strategy for enabling such a system, denoted here as a “human brain/cloud interface” (“B/CI”), would be based on technologies referred to here as “neuralnanorobotics.” Future neuralnanorobotics technologies are anticipated to facilitate accurate diagnoses and eventual cures for the ∼400 conditions that affect the human brain. Neuralnanorobotics may also enable a B/CI with controlled connectivity between neural activity and external data storage and processing, via the direct monitoring of the brain’s ∼86 × 109 neurons and ∼2 × 1014 synapses. Subsequent to navigating the human vasculature, three species of neuralnanorobots (endoneurobots, gliabots, and synaptobots) could traverse the blood–brain barrier (BBB), enter the brain parenchyma, ingress into individual human brain cells, and autoposition themselves at the axon initial segments of neurons (endoneurobots), within glial cells (gliabots), and in intimate proximity to synapses (synaptobots). They would then wirelessly transmit up to ∼6 × 1016 bits per second of synaptically processed and encoded human–brain electrical information via auxiliary nanorobotic fiber optics (30 cm3) with the capacity to handle up to 1018 bits/sec and provide rapid data transfer to a cloud based supercomputer for real-time brain-state monitoring and data extraction. A neuralnanorobotically enabled human B/CI might serve as a personalized conduit, allowing persons to obtain direct, instantaneous access to virtually any facet of cumulative human knowledge. Other anticipated applications include myriad opportunities to improve education, intelligence, entertainment, traveling, and other interactive experiences. A specialized application might be the capacity to engage in fully immersive experiential/sensory experiences, including what is referred to here as “transparent shadowing” (TS). Through TS, individuals might experience episodic segments of the lives of other willing participants (locally or remote) to, hopefully, encourage and inspire improved understanding and tolerance among all members of the human family.

Augmented Human Research

Building on augmented cognition theory and technology, our novel contribution in this work enables accelerated, certain brain functions related to task performance as well as their enhancement. We integrated in an open-source framework, latest immersive virtual reality (VR) head-mounted displays, with the Emotiv EPOC EEG headset in an open neuro-and biofeedback system for cognitive state detection and augmentation. Our novel methodology allows to significantly accelerate content presentation in immersive VR, while lowering brain frequency at alpha level-without losing content retention by the user. In our pilot experiments, we tested our innovative VR platform by presenting to N = 25 subjects a complex 3D maze test and different learning procedures for them on how to exit it. The subjects exposed to our VR-induced entrainment learning technology performed significantly better than those exposed to other ''classical'' learning procedures. In particular, cognitive task performance augmentation was measured for: learning time, complex navigational skills and decision-making abilities, orientation ability.

The main objective of this roadmap is to provide a global perspective on the BCI field now and in the future. For readers not familiar with BCIs, we introduce basic terminology and concepts. We discuss what BCIs are, what BCIs can do, and who can benefit from BCIs. We illustrate our arguments with use cases to support the main messages. After reading this roadmap you will have a clear picture of the potential benefits and challenges of BCIs, the steps necessary to bridge the gap between current and future applications, and the potential impact of BCIs on society in the next decade and beyond.

KN - Journal of Cartography and Geographic Information

Augmented reality (AR), the extension of the real physical world with holographic objects provides numerous ways to influence how people perceive and interact with geographic space. Such holographic elements may for example improve orientation, navigation, and the mental representations of space generated through interaction with the environment. As AR hardware is still in an early development stage, scientific investigations of the effects of holographic elements on spatial knowledge and perception are fundamental for the development of user-oriented AR applications. However, accurate and replicable positioning of holograms in real world space, a highly relevant precondition for standardized scientific experiments on spatial cognition, is still an issue to be resolved. In this paper, we specify technical causes for this limitation. Subsequently, we describe the development of a Unity-based AR interface capable of adding, selecting, placing and removing holograms. The capability to quickly reposition holograms compensates for the lack of hologram stability and enables the implementation of AR-based geospatial experiments and applications. To facilitate the implementation of other task-oriented AR interfaces, code examples are provided and commented. Keywords Augmented reality • AR cartography • HoloLens • Spatial cognition • Experimental methods Zusammenfassung Augmented reality (AR), die Erweiterung der realen physischen Welt durch Hologramme, bietet viele Möglichkeiten die menschliche Wahrnehmung von, und Interaktion mit, dem geographischen Raum zu beeinflussen. Solche holografischen Elemente könnten beispielsweise zu einer Verbesserung von Orientierung, Navigation, oder durch Interaktion mit der Umgebung erzeugter mentaler räumlicher Modelle führen. Da sich AR Hardware noch in einem frühen Entwicklungsstadium befindet, sind wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen der Effekte von holografischen Elementen auf räumliches Wissen und die räumliche Wahrnehmung für die Entwicklung von nutzerorientierten AR Anwendungen notwendig. Die exakte und replizierbare Positionierung von Hologrammen, welche eine maßgebliche Voraussetzung für standardisierte wissenschaftliche Experimente ist, ist durch den Stand der Technik jedoch noch nicht gegeben. In diesem Artikel werden die technischen Ursachen hierfür erläutert. Im Anschluss beschreiben wir die Entwicklung eines Unity-basierten Interface, welches das Hinzufügen, Auswählen, Platzieren, und Entfernen von Hologrammen durch den Nutzer ermöglicht. Die Möglichkeit Hologramme schnell neu zu positionieren dient der Kompensation mangelnder räumlicher Stabilität von Hologrammen und ermöglicht die

Journal of Neural Engineering, 2008

The theoretical groundwork of the 1930's and 1940's and the technical advance of computers in the following decades provided the basis for dramatic increases in human efficiency. While computers continue to evolve, and we can still expect increasing benefits from their use, the interface between humans and computers has begun to present a serious impediment to full realization of the potential payoff. This article is about the theoretical and practical possibility that direct communication between the brain and the computer can be used to overcome this impediment by improving or augmenting conventional forms of human communication. It is about the opportunity that the limitations of our body's input and output capacities can be overcome using direct interaction with the brain, and it discusses the assumptions, possible limitations, and implications of a technology that I anticipate will be a major source of pervasive changes in the coming decades.

Surgical Neurology, 1995

Ko K, Webster JM. Holographic imaging of human brain preparations-a step toward virtual medicine. Surg Neural 1995;44: 428-32. BACKGROUND Holography is the only technique that can record the full tri-dimensional quality of an object, and allow the observer to easily see this as an image that is truly 3-D. The pulsed laser can capture even a moving object's three dimensional form as a hologram because of its short wavelength. METHODS Using a modification of the Klinger processing sequence, formalin-fixed human brains were subjected to periods of freezing and thawing. This assisted the visual demarcation between white and gray matter during neuroanatomical dissection. Holographic methodology with the Lumonic HLS2 pulsed ruby laser was employed to create three dimensional images from brain preparations. RESULTS Master holograms of the human brain preparations demonstrating the various pathways such as vision, corticospinal, etc. are made using the ruby laser at wavelength 694.3 nanometers. From this master an infinite number of holograms can be copied. CONCLUSION By providing immediate three dimensional information, holograms uniquely facilitate the spontaneous understanding of human neuroanatomical relationships which cannot be as efficiently learned with photographs or diagrams. This points the way toward future educational and biomedical applications of this emerging technology.

JOURNAL OF MEDICAL INTERNET RESEARCH, 2019

The first attempts to translate neuronal activity into commands to control external devices were made in monkeys yet in 1960s. After that, during 1960-1970, the biological feedback was realized in monkeys, to provide voluntary control of the firing rate of cortical neurons. The term "brain-computer interface" appeared only in earlier 1970s. The brain-computer interface is usually referred to as a "brain-machine interface" in invasive studies. Nowadays, the brain-computer interface and brain-machine interface research and applications are considered one of the most exciting interdisciplinary areas of science and technology. In particular, brain-computer interfaces are very promising for neurorehabilitation of sensory and motor disabilities, neurocommunication, exoskeletons, cognitive state evaluation, etc. Advanced mathematical methods for extraction and classification of neuronal activity features hold out hope for the future use of brain-computer interfaces in everyday life. At the same time, the lack of effective invasive neuroimaging techniques providing a high-resolution neural activity recording for medical purposes limits the brain-machine interface implementation in clinics. In their paper, Elon Musk and Neuralink have successfully addressed the major issues hampering the next generation of invasive brain-computer interface (or brain-machine interface) development by introducing a novel integrated platform enabling a high-quality registration of thousands of channels. Their device contains arrays of flexible electrode threads with up to 3072 electrodes per array, distributed across 96 threads. To overcome a surgical limitation, the authors have built a neurosurgical robot that inserts 6 threads per minute with a micrometer spatial precision. To increase the biocompatibility, they created a neurosurgical robot, which implants polymer probes much faster and more safely than existing surgical approaches. Using this platform in freely moving rats, the authors report a spiking yield of up to 85.5%. Although the developed system is considered an effective platform for research in rodents, it can serve as an invasive neurointerface prototype for clinical applications. Specifically, multielectrode neurointerfaces may become the basis for new communication systems and advanced assistive technologies for paralyzed people as well as control external devices and interact with the entire environment, eg, by integrating into new fast developed technologies, such as Smart Home and Internet of Things. Moreover, the brain-computer interface applications are very promising for detecting hidden information in the user's brain, which cannot be revealed by conventional communication channels.

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 2019

One of the main, long-term objectives of artificial intelligence is the creation of thinking machines. To that end, substantial effort has been placed into designing cognitive systems; i.e. systems that can manipulate semantic-level information. A substantial part of that effort is oriented towards designing the mathematical machinery underlying cognition in a way that is very efficiently implementable in hardware. In this work, we propose a ‘semi-holographic’ representation system that can be implemented in hardware using only multiplexing and addition operations, thus avoiding the need for expensive multiplication. The resulting architecture can be readily constructed by recycling standard microprocessor elements and is capable of performing two key mathematical operations frequently used in cognition, superposition and binding, within a budget of below 6 pJ for 64-bit operands. Our proposed ‘cognitive processing unit’ is intended as just one (albeit crucial) part of much larger c...