A Metasurface-Based Brain-Computer Interface Unlocks Telepathic Communication — After a Fashion
By staring at a connected user interface, a pair of BCI users with "special hats" can communicate through metasurface-transmitted thoughts.
Researchers from China's Southeast University, the South China University of Technology, and the National University of Singapore have shown off a non-invasive device designed for direct wireless communication between two human minds — sending text messages by thought alone.
"Inspired by the BCI [Brain-Computer Interface]-based rehabilitation technologies for nerve-system impairments and amputation," the team writes in the abstract to the paper disclosing its research, "we propose an electromagnetic brain-computer-metasurface (EBCM) paradigm, regulated by human’s cognition by brain signals directly and non-invasively."
The metasurface device demonstrated in the paper is, at heart an electroencephalogram (EEG) sensor — turning brain activity into electrical signals, which can be fed into a computer. It's accurate enough to allow for use as a brain-computer interface, yet operates wholly non-invasively — worn by the operator as a "special hat" rather than requiring surgical implants.
The team's work goes beyond simply controlling a computer, though. In a key experiment, the researchers proved that the system enabled a form of computer-mediated telepathy — allowing two operators to communicate, albeit slowly, by text messages written entirely by thought.
It's not quite as straightforward as its sounds, unfortunately. The EBCM operators are given a graphical user interface, which allows them to select characters as inputs by staring at them; once the chosen letter is read by the computer on the other end of the EEG, the signal is transmitted wirelessly to a second operator through manipulation of the EBCM's metasurface — allowing for user-to-user communications, albeit at a rate of around five seconds per letter when used by a "skilled BCI operator."
"The presented work," the team concludes, "combining the EM wave space and BCI, may further open up a new direction to explore the deep integration of metasurface, human brain intelligence, and artificial intelligence, so as to build up new generations of bio-intelligent metasurface systems."
The team's work has been published in the journal eLight under open-access terms.